All football fans can think of a time when their team’s chances in a game have been extinguished by a red card. A game can flip on its head on the back of a rash challenge, but also as the result of a rash refereeing decision. The modern game moves so quickly, with officials having to make massive decisions in tiny amounts of time. The infographic below looks at analysis by CIES Football Observatory showing the top flight leagues in Europe with the highest number of red cards per game for the season so far.
This chart shows the average number of red cards per match during the 2016/2017 season, by national top-flight league.