REFEREE Darren Drysdale told the FA he reacted after being called a ‘cheating bald c***’ by Ipswich midfielder Alan Judge.
Drysdale has been cleared to return to duty – after an FA commission ruled his unofficial suspension meant he had already missed more games than they could ban him for.
But the written reasons for the commission imposing a back-dated three week ban show Drysdale admitted he had lost his cool after being subjected to a tirade from Judge.
According to Drysdale, Judge responded after being booked for diving.
Drysdale, 50, told the commission: “As I blew my whistle Alan Judge shouted aggressively in a loud voice at me and from a distance of only five metres ‘It’s a f*** penalty you cheating bald c***.’
“Reacting completely out of character, I took exception to what I considered to be an offensive comment.
“I walked towards Alan Judge who then continued his tirade of abuse as he then, what I deemed as, aggressively and provokingly pointed his finger towards my face and shouted, ‘You’re a f*** cheating c***’.”
Drysdale, who admitted an FA misconduct charge, added: “I accept that I should not have moved my head towards Alan Judge as this only inflamed the situation.
“At no time was there any physical contact between myself and Alan Judge.
“My action of moving forward was as a posture of authority and with the player being significantly shorter than me, this led to me looking down at him.”
The commission heard that Judge had declined, on two occasions, to give any evidence to the hearing.
It found that Drysdale, who was immediately taken off the EFL match list, had effectively served a suspension in excess of the ban that would have been imposed and that it would be “disproportionate” to add a further suspension.
Despite his ban having been deemed to be served between February 19 and March 10, Drysdale will not be on duty this weekend or next midweek as the appointments have already been made.
