The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has called for the Football Association to make Luton Town manager Mike Newell referee a women’s football match.
Newell is under fire from the Luton board after making sexist comments about female officials in a post-match interview on Saturday.
Believing that a decision from assistant referee Amy Rayner led to Luton’s 3-2 defeat to Queens Park Rangers, Newell blasted the use of female officials as “tokenism for the politically-correct idiots”.
Newell has apologised for his remarks but Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development assistant director general Duncan Brown waded in with his opinions on the people’s sport.
“Newell’s employers and Amy Rayner’s should take firm action against him for this unjustified abuse,” he said. “In this day and age it is unacceptable for someone to be abused at work simply for being a woman.
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“Perhaps Newell should be forced as a punishment to referee a women’s football match so that he can learn both how difficult the official’s job is and how rapidly the standard of women’s football in this country is improving.”
Newell took over at Luton in 2003 and won the League One title in 2004/5. The side has slipped from 5th to 16th in the championship after four consecutive defeats.
