ALAN JUDGE has furiously denied calling Darren Drysdale a ‘cheating bald c***’ after the referee’s explosive claims during his FA hearing on Thursday.
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.
Referee Darren Drysdale remarkably squared up to Ipswich’s Alan Judge during the Tractor Boys’ clash against Northampton last monthCredit: � Richard Calver – www.matchdayimages.com
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***ing 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.”
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Drysdale has claimed he reacted to Judge after the player called him a ‘cheating bald c***’Credit: Getty Images – Getty
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.
But, Judge has hit back at Drysdale’s claims, angered by the attack on his ‘reputation’ while claiming he has more important things to worry about after his mum passed away last week.
Judge said: “I said the incident was over as far as I was concerned when I walked off the pitch and that I wasn’t looking for an apology.
“I didn’t want to make anything of it because it’s a tough job being a referee but I’m not going to keep quiet when I’ve been accused of calling the referee a cheat and using the C word.
“I’ll admit using the F word but I said to him ‘you have got to be f****ing joking me’ and I said that a couple of times to him.
“I never used the C word. I don’t use that word and I didn’t call him a cheat.
“My mum passed away last week – which is far more important than this – and I don’t need this hassle to be honest.
“Like I said, the matter was closed but I’ve got a decent reputation in the game and I won’t stand by and be accused of saying something I didn’t and not responding.
“Our media team have got some audio and it backs me up.
“Some people have said I should have come out straightaway and explained what I said but I didn’t want to do that.
“I was trying to help Darren. I said the matter was finished and it was but I have to make it clear now that I totally dispute what has been said by the referee.”
Ipswich vs Northampton ref Darren Drysdale squares up to Town ace Alan Judge in heated clash
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
