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Football

13th Nov 2018

Referee suspended for using rock, paper, scissors for kick-off instead of coin toss

Referee David McNamara has been suspended by the FA for 21 days for using rock, paper, scissors to decide who kicked off after forgetting his coin

Darragh Murphy

Referee David McNamara has been suspended by the FA for 21 days for using rock, paper, scissors to decide who kicked off after forgetting his coin

Ahead of the Women’s Super League game between Manchester City and Reading on October 26, McNamara asked the captains to play rock, paper, scissors to determine kick-off and playing ends.

The move, which seems quite logical to us in the absence of a coin, has not gone down well at the Football Association as the game’s governing body in England has decided to suspend the official for three weeks.

A spokesperson for the FA told Sky Sports: “The FA can confirm that referee David McNamara has been suspended for 21 days, starting from Monday 26th November, after accepting a charge of ‘not acting in the best interests of the game.

“This follows an incident in the WSL match between Manchester City and Reading on Friday 26th October when he failed to determine which team would kick off the match by the toss of a coin, as required by the Laws of the game.

“McNamara will return to duty from Monday 17th December.”