Mid-Day

The 18-year-old, who has not been named, was watching TV at home in a village near Bingham in Nottinghamshire, central England, when, like thousands of United fans at Old Trafford on Tuesday, he was incensed by Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir’s decision to show a red card to Nani.

He then dialled Britain’s emergency 999 telephone line at around 2120 GMT to tell operators a crime had been committed. “While this may be amusing, it illustrates the sort of insincere calls we have to deal with on a daily basis,” chief inspector Ted Antill of Nottinghamshire Police said.

“They waste our time and direct us away from genuine victims of crime,” he added