Newell fined

Luton manager Mike Newell has been fined £6,500 by the Football Association after his outburst against women officials in general and Amy Rayner in particular.

His comments came after Ms Rayner put in an abysmal performance in Luton's 2-3 home defeat by QPR.

Newell had requested a personal hearing after denying the charge, which seemed like a lost cause since he had publically apologised for the comments.

He was warned as to his future conduct (for the third time!) and fined £5,000 for his comments about assistant referee Amy Rayner, and a further £1,500 for 'failing to act in the best interests of the game' in relation to the comments about women in football generally.

I would have thought that the seriousness of the offences was the other way round but that's the FA for you!



The offending comments were:

'This is Championship football. This is not park football, so what are women doing here? It is tokenism, for the politically-correct idiots.

'She [Rayner] 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.'

I would imagine that the Town boss probably thought that it was well worth the fine, but either way it does not bring back the point that she cost us.

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