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Soccer games can be called off for a wide variety of reasons, but this one certainly is a first.
A match in Germany on Sunday was cancelled right before kickoff after a referee suffered an unfortunate injury in an incredibly odd manner — he was bitten in the testicle by one of the player’s children.
FC Taxi Duisburg II and SV Rot-Weiss Mülheim were set to compete in Germany’s eighth-tier Kreisliga C division. As part of pre-match protocol, referee Stefan Kahler was conducting ID checks on players when a young child, reportedly the son of an FC Taxi player, was running around the field.
According to the National World, as Kahler continued his pre-game duties, the child approached him and unexpectedly bit him in the left testicle.
“While I was checking the FC Taxi players’ ID, a small child was doing warm-up exercises alongside the players. He came closer and closer to me, then suddenly — to my complete surprise — gave me a sharp bite in my left testicle,” Kahler said in a report obtained by the outlet.
The injury was severe enough that Kahler had to call off the match before it even began.
In his official report, the referee wrote that he could not officiate due to the pain and the bizarre nature of the incident.
“I did not start the game because of the pain I was in and the situation. It was the child of one of the FC Taxi players who was to blame,” he said.
The game will be rescheduled later in the season, though it remains uncertain if and when Kahler will return to his refereeing duties.