A referee in Uruguay sent off 17 players in Montevideo on Sunday following a mass brawl that ensued from one of the teams believing it should have been awarded a penalty toward the end of a tense game in Uruguay’s Apertura championship.

The game between Wanderers and Juventud ended 3-3, but chaos broke out after the final whistle, as players from both teams started punching and kicking each other, prompting the referee Leodan Gonzalez, to show red cards to eight players from each team.

Wanderers believed it should have been awarded a penalty for a foul on midfielder Gaston Rodriguez towards the end of the game. The home team had been playing with 10 men after Diego de Souza was dismissed towards the end of the first half.

After the match, Wanderers vice president, Gaston Inda, said: "Something got out of hand because during the match nothing had happened but these are situations we can't allow and we're sorry for what happened."