Football referee books player for pointing out dead mole

A footballer has received one of the sport’s craziest bookings – for telling the referee about a dead mole on the pitch. Cradley Town winger Sean Williams, known to teammates and friends as ‘Willow’, was cautioned for the altruistic act during his team’s 8-2 hammering of Shawbury United last Saturday. But 28-year-old Sean, from Darlaston, near Walsall, said he assumed the referee must have thought he was contesting an offside decision made moments earlier and produced a yellow card for dissent.



“I couldn’t believe it,” said the ex-Oldbury Athletic player. “All I tried to do was show him the dead mole but he wouldn’t listen and just kept saying ‘Go away’. Even the away supporters and manager said it wasn’t right.” The mole was removed at half-time of the West Midlands Premier league match at Cradley’s home ground in Halesowen last Saturday.

It was shown to the referee, but under FA rules he was unable to rescind the booking or the £10 fine which accompanied it. “The ref did come over to apologise in the second half,” Sean added. Dave Shelton, secretary of the Birmingham County FA, said the only way the yellow card could be overturned was if the referee sent a letter of appeal to the FA alongside the booking report.



Mr Shelton added: “Something like that is a genuine error and you’ve got to have a degree of sympathy for both parties.” Cradley Town coach Russell Dodd said he had not seen anything like it in more than 30 years in the game. He said: “I feel sorry for Sean – I can’t expect him to pay £10 for that. I said to the official ‘have you seen that?’ As the game wore on he came to apologise and said he had made a mistake.”