It’s not often that a standard, run of the mill holding penalty blooms into an international incident, but that’s what seems to be what is happening following the London-Dublin game Monday.

Dublin’s Hampus Lindholm (above) was involved in an incident with London’s Jason Zucker that is turning into an international incident.

Scottish referee Ian Davis happened to be positioned close to Hampus Lindholm, a Swede,  and Jason Zucker, an American, when the Dublin defenseman grabbed Zucker and threw him into the boards. Davis’ arm went up immediately to signal a penalty and the two players got in each other’s faces, prompting the linesmen to get between them as peacemakers. To the casual observer, it seemed like nothing out of the ordinary. Lindholm sat for 2 minutes and the game continued. But Davis contacted league officials after the game because he was bothered by what happened before and after the penalty.

He even drove to Vienna to meet in person with Sepp Blatter, the league’s Director of Discipline and Player Safety, reporting that Lindholm and Zucker were chirping at each for most of the shift, insulting each other’s nationalities and claiming players from the other’s country don’t know how to play the game properly any more.

“It got very heated,” Davis reportedly said to Blatter, “to the point where one player lashed out at another violently. That’s dangerous and it’s so dumb because everyone knows both Swedes and American  aren’t adapting to the new style of hockey. Only Scots and Brits play well nowadays.”

At that, Blatter hurled his stapler at Davis, striking the referee in the right shoulder. It is reported that Blatter, who is Swiss, said, “Scots suck. The Swiss are the best in the world right now, idiot.”

League Commissioner Chuck Massaro heard the commotion from his office and asked Accountant Rose  to step in between the men to stop a potential fight. Massaro later said he is troubled by the rise in divisive nationalism lately in the EURO League and believes it could threaten the league’s existence.

“I was planning to play EA’s NHL 18 with Paja Janssen tonight, so I will ask him what his thoughts are. He knows everything. Please be ready for an announcement Wednesday on what actions I will take on behalf of the league,” Massaro said. “I just have to find out from Paja what it is I’m thinking about doing.”