FA suspends referee assessor for 16 weeks for 2 incidents of racism
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The FA has suspended one of its referee assessors for four months for two incidents of racial abuse.
A three-person disciplinary panel found unanimously that a case against former police officer Michael Ewen had been proved. Three complainants – two referees and a referees coach – had come forward to give statements.
What actually happened that prompted FA to take this action?
The 70-year-old first denied a claim that in February 2018, he asked, on being told the email address of an assistant referee, Bo Wang: “What number on the Chinese menu is that?”
And then, ahead of a game in back in December 2019 and while discussing a forthcoming operation, Ewen is alleged to have been “proudly stating how he would refuse black doctors to be involved in the operation process, going on to say he wouldn’t let them f***ing touch me”.
Ewen denied the claim, arguing he had had a triple-bypass operation which had been carried out by a Chinese and Indian surgeon. Ewen also rejected an allegation he continued in front of witnesses, stating “he couldn’t understand them and said he’d previously told a doctor to go away and get someone who can talk proper English.”
They thought that a match based ban would not be appropriate because Ewen is not a player. Therefore, they went with a week based ban. They had first banned him for 20 weeks but seeing as he had been a faithful police officer for 50+ years, they reduced the ban to 16 weeks.
The FA panel banned Ewen for 16 weeks from football and all football-related activity for using language that referred to race, nationality or ethnicity. He has also been told to undertake a face-to-face education programme.
Each charge resulted in a punishment of just eight weeks. But the panel argued that because Ewen is not a player, manager or technical area occupant, a match-based suspension was not appropriate.
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Aryan Sharma
(95 Articles Published)