10 red cards shown in Argentine Cup final.

A referee showed 10 red cards during an Argentine Cup final at the weekend, which was ended early because one of the teams, Boca Juniors, did not have enough players left on the field at the end to complete the match.

Tensions were already high going into the Champions Trophy, between Boca and Racing, after a thrilling finish to the league season.

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With just one game to go, Boca led Racing by a single point, but with an inferior goal difference. Boca could only draw with Independiente, but were given a huge favour by their hated rivals River Plate, who beat Racing to ensure that the title would go to the team from La Bombonera stadium.

Referee Facundo Tello had already dismissed two players, one from each side, as the match headed into extra time – but he was just getting started.

In the 118^th minute, Racing took the lead on the night, and, as tempers flared, a mass brawl broke out among the players.

The goalscorer Carlos Alcaraz was the first to receive his marching orders for the nature of his exuberant celebrations, which triggered a chain reaction among the Boca players. They pushed and kicked him, grabbed him by the ear, and then hurled the ball at him.

With things getting out of hand, Tello brandished the red card seven more times in all, with Boca players receiving six of them.

The laws state that for a match to be completed a team must have at least seven players on the pitch at the end of it, a number that Boca could not muster.

Racing were handed the trophy, although it was the scenes that marred the end of the match that will live longest in the memory.

Amazingly that was not even a record for red cards in a match in Argentina.

According to the Guinness Book of records, that belongs to a match in the fifth tier of Argentine football in 2011 between Claypole and Victoriano Arenas. The referee in that game had already sent off two players before the break, when midway through the second-half, a mass brawl ensued, involving the remaining players on the pitch, both benches and even some fans who threw punches.

In the referee’s final report, it transpired he had sent off all the players remaining on the bench plus a further 14 subs and coaches sat on the side-limes. The 36 red cards he showed that day is a world record.

Tello, though, is acquiring quite a reputation for himself. In the 199 top flight matches in South America in which he has officiated in the middle, he has already shown 612 yellow and 45 red cards in his career.

But now he has the chance to make his name on the global stage. He has been chosen by Argentina as one of their referees for the Qatar World Cup, and is set to depart for the Middle East shortly.

Given what he seems capable of, any team which finds itself being refereed by him might want to be on their best behaviour.