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Guinness World Record for most red cards in a single game broken after 15 years, as 53 people sent off in Brazil
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Published 05/11/2026 at 08:59 GMT
The record for the most red cards issued in a single football match was broken in emphatic fashion on Sunday night, thanks to an unprecedented scene of tempers lost to the temptation of remonstration in Brazil, as confirmed by Guinness World Records.
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The previous mark had stood for more than 15 years, but there is now a new bar to be cleared for any two teams who wish to claim the inauspicious record.
You may be surprised to know that instead of the game being a high-stakes match between two international or club powerhouses, it was in fact a youth match that saw a progressive, roiling and ultimately unmatched case of "the battle fever".
This weekend in Brazil, two under-20 sides met in a local semi-final for the age group in Minas Gerais, a large inland state in the south-east of the country.
The two teams contesting the match were Mamore and Uberlandia.
It appeared that Mamore would go through to the final as they went 3-1 up against their opponents, with their two-goal margin leaving them on the cusp of victory.
At this stage of the game, three players had already been sent off, suggesting that there was a testy and ill-tempered ambience.
However, after the fourth goal, a staggering 40 players were sent off by the match referee, Fernando Patrick Drosghic Modesto.Â
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Another eight staff were sent off from the two sides' respective benches. There were also two red cards for Uberlandia board members, which saw the total number of dismissals climbing beyond a half-century, to 53 individuals.
The previous record noted by the Guinness World Record stood at 36, which coincidentally also took place in South America.
In that match, youth was not so much an excuse, as the sending-offs took place in a senior match, in an Argentine fifth division game, held between Atletico Claypole and Victoriano Arenas.
That match was in February 2011, more than 15 years ago. It remains to be seen when - and indeed if, given the unprecedented scale of stramash - this record will be broken.
Modesto's report indicated that the confrontation began when Mamore player Davi gestured towards the bench of the Uberlandia team after the team had scored their third goal.
That led to Paulo Sergio Dias Dos Santos, the Uberlandia goalkeeping coach, entering the field of play to have a full and frank discussion on the matter at hand.
While 53 red cards is something of an outlier, and points to tempers being beyond frayed and edging towards being entirely dismantled, the referee suggested in his report that matters took a far darker turn.
He claims that death threats and threats of physical harm were made to him by a number of people involved amid the record-breaking number of red cards.
Additionally, the referee noted that a police report was filed as a result of those threats.
After the string of red cards, the match was brought to a halt for 40 minutes, and then abandoned.
Given the aggressive temperament of the match and the number of players who would be ineligible to play the rest of the game, it would have been unworkable to force the remainder of the game to be played.
Reports suggest that Uberlandia's officials damaged Mamore's club equipment and the dressing room.
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