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Defour sees red over obscene banner

Steven Defour was given a yellow card - his second of the match - for his reaction to an obscene banner © Getty Images

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Standard Liege fans caused outrage among Belgian officials after a banner depicting the severed head of former player Steven Defour was unveiled on the Anderlecht midfielder's return to the club.

Defour, who played for Standard for five years until 2011 and joined Anderlecht from Porto last year, was greeted with a huge banner at Liège's Stade Maurice Dufrasne adorned with the words "Red or Dead" and the obscene image.

The banner was presented before kick-off. Understandably, Defour did not take too kindly to this and reacted by appearing to deliberately strike the ball with some force into the Standard crowd.

The referee felt he had no choice but to show Defour a red card and Standard, who were drawing 0-0 with Anderlecht at that stage, went on to compound the midfielder's misery by winning the match 2-0.

Following the match, Thibault De Gendt of the Belgian FA said: "It was disgusting and took place in front of children. We hope never to see this again."

Defour later apologised for his red card via a post on his official Instagram account. Bob Madou, the Belgian Football Federation's chief of communications, also tweeted his disgust and called the banner "distasteful" "unacceptable".

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