A drone flying over Brentford vs Wolves in west London caused the game to be suspended for several minutes.
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Yes, you read that correctly.
File this under “things I never expected to write” as this is the first time a drone has impacted a Premier League game in this manner. We have seen it during some international games, but hopefully this is just a random one-off incident.
What happened?
The drone was spotted flying just over the stadium for an extended period of time, as the referee blew his whistle and took players from both teams off the pitch.
Premier League rules state that any unofficial object flying over the stadium should be investigated and players will be taken off the pitch for safety reasons.
Our partners in the UK at Sky Sports are reporting that the police are investigating the incident.
Then what?
Brentford’s stadium PA announcers informed the crowd why players had been taken off the pitch in the first half, as there was still plenty of time left due to a nasty head collision which saw Mathias Jensen and Rico Henry both substituted under the concussion protocols.
After a lengthy break (around 15 minutes) both teams returned to the pitch to warm up, and play resumed after the ‘Brentford drone’ situation.
There were 19 minutes of added time in the first half.
Reaction to a bizarre incident
Wolves boss Bruno Lage spoke to BBC Sport after the game and had this to say about the Brentford drone, as it will forever be known.
“Tried to understand what happened, tried to find the man who controlled the drone then we come inside and talk a little bit about the game. Sometimes we don’t have that time during the game to chat and we talked a little bit. I think it was a strange first half too many stops but I think in the second half, we started very well. We were the better team in the second half, we scored early, we controlled the game.”
Play has been halted due to a drone above the stadium
— Brentford FC (@BrentfordFC) January 22, 2022
The teams are heading back into the tunnel
🐝 0-0 🐺 #BrentfordFC #BREWOL pic.twitter.com/rZ0iCuBF0L
There's a break in play and the teams have been taken off the field because there's an unofficial drone flying above the stadium...
— Wolves (@Wolves) January 22, 2022
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