Philobiblon

The assistant referee makes what you think is a bad decision about a penalty kick (although by no means is there unanimity on that point).

What do you blame? Of course it must be the referee’s gender that is at fault. Well, if she’s female: that’s the conclusion of the Luton football manager Mike Newell.

Funnily enough, I’ve never heard the same explanation for a male official – might be that you claim he needs glasses, that he can’t run fast enough, that he doesn’t really understand the game – but I’ve never heard a male’s gender blamed.

Newell said: “She should not be here. I know that sounds sexist, but I am sexist, so I am not going to be anything other than that.
“We have a problem in this country with political correctness, and bringing women into the game is not the way to improve refereeing and officialdom.
“It is absolutely beyond belief. When do we reach a stage when all officials are women, because then we are in trouble?
“It is bad enough with the incapable referees and linesmen we have, but if you start bringing in women, you have big problems.
“This is Championship football. This is not park football, so what are women doing here? It is tokenism, for the politically-correct idiots.”

Will be interesting to see the reaction to this. Just imagine what the reaction would be if he had said the same things about race. He’d be out on his ear in a second. Somehow, however, I’m not expecting that result when gender is the issue.