A fan enraged by two quick red cards shown to the Qingdao Chinese Super League club at the weekend registered his annoyance by launching a kick at the referee and shoving a linesman.

The Slovenian forward Aleksander Rodic was the first Qingdao player sent off after picking up a second yellow card for diving in the 67th minute of the 2-0 loss to Shanghai Shenhua yesterday. The Croatian midfielder Stjepan Jukic was also shown red three minutes later after a bad tackle.

The foul sparked a melee during which the unidentified man raced on to the pitch and attacked the two officials, Chinese media reported today.

Yu Tao, the general manager of Qingdao, denied that the man, who was wearing branded shorts and trainers, was a club employee.

"The man was definitely not on the staff of our club. He was just an emotional fan," he told the Xinhua news agency. "The referee failed to control the game well – perhaps he was too young."

Around 100 Qingdao fans smashed up a car they believed belonged to the referee, Wang Zhe, after the match, Xinhua reported.