Soccer ref suspended after subbing coin toss with rock, paper, scissors
An English soccer referee is hot water over a child’s game.
David McNamara took the field before Manchester City’s home game against Reading in a Women’s Super League kickoff without a key tool for his job.
A coin.
Ref improvised when he forgot his coin
When it came time to determine who kicked off in that Oct. 26 match, McNamara improvised.
Rather than fetch a coin, he instructed the two sides to engage in a game of rock, paper, scissors.
This did not please Football Association women’s refereeing manager Joanna Stimpson.
Manager: ‘Very unprofessional’
“He should have been more prepared, he should have had a coin,” Stimpson told The London Times. “It was disappointing, it’s not appropriate, it’s very unprofessional.”
The move, while a deft example of thinking on his feet, proved a costly one for McNamara. The Football Association suspended him for three weeks, a ban he will serve from Nov. 26-Dec. 16.
His official violation was “not acting in the best interests of the game.”
It seems a stiff penalty, but one that American fans of the NFL can probably appreciate in a season full of frustrations over how the game’s officiated.
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