Luton Town boss Mike Newell, he of the upstanding battle against bungs, launched one of the most hilarious and unrestrained attacks on female referees on Sunday after assistant ref Amy Rayner failed to award his side a penalty. With Graham Poll still getting all the attention in the Premiership after controversial decisions against Chelsea, Everton and Manchester City, it’s good to see some helpful words being said in the lower leagues,
“She shouldn’t be here. I know that sounds sexist but I am sexist. This is not park football, so what are women doing here?”
“It is tokenism – for the politically-correct idiots,”
“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.”
It would be nice if there was some sort of explanation behind his comments other than “I am sexist”, anyone care to flesh out his argument a bit? He’s since apologised, but somehow it seems somewhat too little too late.