Five card trick

Fantastic goings-on at a game between River and Oeiras in north-east Brazil's State League last week. Referee Edmilson Timoteo da Silva booked Paulo Araujo of Oerias for a foul, and booked him again for another offence soon after - so out came the red card. Some time later, the ref gave another yellow card to an Oerias player, who he then realised looked awful like Araujo. Funnily enough, it was Araujo, who had snuck back on to the field after his red card. So, the ref gave him another red card.

Card total for Araujo? Three yellows and two reds in the one game (and Mauricio Taricco thought he had a bad week). Da Silva has been banned from refereeing until further notice by the Brazilian Football Confederation, whose president explained that he hadn't realised the player was still on the field "because many of them looked alike". S'pose it didn't help either that the Oeiras players were all wearing the same colours.