Watch: Referee walks off in protest at a Bundesliga game in Germany
Fed up by a manager's refusal to leave the technical area, the referee decided to take this unique step.
We've heard about players being sent off in football, but this could be a first: a referee just getting fed up and walking out of a football match.
And not just in any match, but in a match at the highest level of German club football, a Bundesliga clash between Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund at the BayArena in Leverkusen.
In the 64th minute, Dortmund's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored to give his team the lead – but Leverkusen manager Roger Schmidt wasn't too happy, claiming that the free-kick was taken five yards away from the correct spot.
Schmidt argued vociferously with the referee Felix Zwayer, who finally sent him off. In an act of insubordination, he refused to go off the pitch, despite the referee repeatedly asking the Leverkusen skipper to tell his manager to leave the technical area.
Finally, Zwayer had enough. He ordered his officials off the pitch and walked off himself, leaving everyone bemused. The match came to an abrupt halt for nine minutes and only restarted after Schmidt had left the technical area.
That contentious goal proved to be the difference as Dortmund finished 1-0 winners.