Arnar Pétursson, Coach of Iceland’s Women’s Handball Team, Faces Yellow Card Amid Narrow Loss to Serbia
At the World Cup in Stuttgart, things got heated for Arnar Pétursson, head coach of Iceland’s women’s handball team. A narrow defeat to Serbia left him frustrated with the officiating — frustrated enough to earn a yellow card.
At one point during the match, Arnar got into an animated exchange with Dragöna Cvijic, Serbia’s linewoman. He didn’t shy away from explaining why. “I felt flat at the time, and I was just trying to fire my team up. There were two VAR decisions in the first half that I wanted reviewed,” Pétursson said.
That said, he wasn’t wholesale critical of the referees. “They handled the game quite well and remained composed,” he told mbl.is when asked about the yellow card and the officiating in general.
Still, the emotion of the moment clearly got the better of him. “Things went downhill for us in the first half, and I aimed to spark some momentum,” he said — a straightforward admission from a coach who wears his feelings on the sideline.
