When Arsenal played Liverpool in the 2001/02 FA Cup it was a very fiery affair. With Arsenal having already had a player sent off when Denis Bergkamp lunged in with a dangerous tackle on Jamie Carragher resulting in Arsenal’s second yellow one Arsenal fan lost it and launched a £1 coin at Jamie Carragher.
As you can imagine Carragher was absolutely fuming. He picked up the coin and threw it back into the Arsenal crowd. The referee immediately gave Carragher a straight red card.
Referee Mike Riley explained to the press that he had no choice but to dismiss Carragher saying: “It was an unfortunate and thankfully very unusual incident. Something appeared to be thrown from the crowd that I think hit Jamie.
“He responded by picking it up and throwing it back into the crowd, and that is a case of violent conduct punishable by a red card.”
It turned out to be a pretty expensive coin toss for Carragher as Liverpool fined him £40,000 and the England squad to drop him.
Skip to 3.50 to see the full incident.