Bolivia’s football federation suspended six match officials after they added 42 minutes in a professional national league match. Bolivian championship match lasts 133 minutes because referee adds 42 minutes extra due to a prolonged video review of Palmaflor’s second goal and a brawl that followed two red cards for the visitors. A huge 42 minutes were added on to a Bolivian game on a heavily waterlogged pitch.
The 132-minute clash took place under heavy rains in the city of Chapare, in the South American country’s heartland. Blooming said on Twitter that the match officials put its players under heavy risk of injury due to “excessive added time.”
Palmaflor’s top sports executive is Bolivia’s former President Evo Morales, who said on social media his team had won the match despite “suspicious officials.”
Morales governed Bolivia between 2006-2019. The club rose to the country’s top flight division this year. Atletico Palmaflor looked to be easing towards a 2-0 victory after Gilbert Alvarez doubled their lead in the 82nd minute following Jonathan Canete's first-half spot kick.
But the astonishing conclusion to the match - played on a partly-flooded pitch - then began to unfold when Blooming pulled one back through Gaston Rodriguez Maeso.
The goal required a 17-MINUTE VAR check for a possible offside before it was eventually given. It was then assumed that a lengthy amount of stoppage-time would be added on.
However, rather than the 18 or 20 minutes expected, 30 MINUTES were tagged onto the end of the game. Referee Julio Fernando Gutierrez then showed two red cards to Blooming players during the dramatic, fiery finale as brawls ensued.
In between the dismissals, Blooming also equalised through Jose Luis Sinisterra.
Despite clinching victory in the Bolivian Primera Division clash, Palmaflor chief Evo Morales was not happy with the ref after the game. He said: "We are happy for our team's victory against Blooming, despite the suspicious refereeing.
"We are sorry about it and ask for a performance review of all the referees who exaggeratedly prolong matches. "We would not like to think that they were looking to make our team lose."
Meanwhile, Blooming's official social media account mocked the officiating by stating that the final whistle signalled the "end of the third half".
It has since been confirmed that the Bolivian soccer federation have suspended Gutierrez and five other officials while they investigate evidence of foul play.