A quite amazing story coming out of Leicester amateur side Aylestone St James this week. The club was fined £1,575 for "forcibly removing the underwear" of three unnamed officials including the referee after their game against Grimbsy on November 3rd last year.
The club have a tradition of patrons not wearing underwear at a certain time of the day apparently and when the referee was unaware of this, several club players "ripped off his underwear whilst he was still wearing trousers" in the clubhouse after the game as he socialised with the players. Two other officials arrived after the referee and they too had their underwear removed by a group of players.
One of the officials described the ordeal in a written statement as "humiliating and embarrassing" and said he suffered 12 hours of serious discomfort.
Aylestone said in a statement that they regretted the incident and in a hearing to investigate the RFU came to the conclusion that:
"The visiting referees had been subjected to a humiliating and degrading act, namely the forcible removal of their underwear without their trousers being removed.
"They had their underwear/boxer shorts ripped off. This was physical assault. They all felt humiliated and degraded. The panel accepted the club was contrite and had taken the matter very seriously.
No word yet on whether of not the club has contemplated changing this hallowed tradition of ripping the underwear off of referees.
