Internet Culture

TV host banned from son’s soccer games after Twitter tirade

Terry Christian tweeted about an official at his 11-year-old son’s soccer match. 

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Kris Holt

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A soccer player receiving a ban for arguing with a referee is one thing. A dad being told to stay away from youth games for tweeting about a ref’s apparent bias is quite another.

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Terry Christian has been banned from his son’s games after a Twitter tirade against a referee. The U.K. broadcaster and TV host called the official “clumsy and blatantly and unashamedly biased” after his son’s team, Queensgate Juniors Wasps Under-11s, tied with Spurley Hey in a game in Greater Manchester, England.

Christian claimed his son was stamped in the groin and elbowed in the face, yet the other team was awarded a penalty after the ball hit a Queensgate player in the midriff.

“I put up one tweet after the game… and all of a sudden I get told the FA [Football Association] have said I should stay away from training and matches,” the Mirror reported Christian as saying. “I actually felt sorry for the ref because he was clearly put under pressure.”

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Queensgate apologized to the referee for Christian’s assertions of bias and asked Christian to stay away from games and training sessions.

The 17-year-old referee in question issued a statement Thursday. According to the Manchester Evening News, he said:

“I understand that referees take a bit of stick from time to time, but basically I’m a 17-year-old lad who gives up his Saturday mornings to ref under-11s games and I’m gobsmacked by all this fuss. 

Not all my decisions are popular but I always have the interests of fair-play, equality and respect at the heart of every call that I make.”

Christian, who has more than 36,000 followers, refused to take the referee’s statement at face value. He claimed the teenager’s father is the coach of the under-16s team at Spurley Hey, while his two brothers play for the Spurley Hey.

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Photo of Terry Christian via BBC/YouTube

 
The Daily Dot