Today in misogyny: a county FA official across the pond has been handed a four suspension for telling a would-be female referee that 'a woman's place is in the kitchen and not on a football field.'
Lucy May, a referee development officer, inquired to Northumberland County FA vice president John Cummings about the possibility of taking charge of a match in the North East Sunday League. As if his cliched kitchen response wasn't enough, Cummings added 'you wouldn't be able to handle it.'
He then made sure he'd ticked all the sexist boxes possible by telling her:
It's nothing against you personally but all the time I'm alive, a woman will never referee in my league.
A commission, headed by former Blackburn player turned solicitor, Stuart Ripley, found Cummings guilty of breaching FA rule relating to 'abusive and/or insulting language.' They decided that his remarks were worthy of a four month ban, a £250 and attendance at an education programme.
Cummings could appeal the band with BBC Sport revealing that he thinks he should get a more lenient ban for what he claims were comments made in jest. Well, that is, after he denied making the comments in the first place.
What an age we live in.
