If You Want To Play Soccer In Australia, Please Remove Your Genital Piercings First

The Old Hill Wanderers would like to clear up the specifics in an incident that led to a red card in a game against Swinburne on June 19:

During the first half, our player [Aaron Eccleston] was struck in the groin by the ball, and left the field to receive attention. At this point the referee became aware that the he had a body piercing. He subsequently received two yellow cards, firstly for re-entering the field of play without the referee's permission, and secondly for privacy reasons being unable to prove that he had removed the piercing. At no point during the incident did the player of Old Hill Wanderers expose himself to the referee or to other players on the field.

Old Hill Wanderers FC is satisfied that the conduct of both the referee and our player was reasonable, and accepts that the two yellow cards given to the player were in accordance with the laws of football.

Old Hill Wanderers FC apologises to VicSoccer and the referee in question regarding the negative attention that may have been generated by this unfortunate event.

The only confusion, here: Eccleston's promise, after getting thrown off the pitch, that he would be "making a complaint" against the ref because "it's not right looking at my cock." We'll never know what really went on in that locker room, so we'll let this one slip into Australian soccer lore, with a slight warning to aspiring Wanderers: be careful what you pierce. It may be punishable.

H/T Off The Post.