Newell says sorry for sexist remarks

Mike Newell issued a personal apology last night to the female assistant referee he claimed had "no place" in football. But the Luton Town boss defended his position against tokenism' in the game saying "his wife, his mother and his sister" agreed with him.

Newell was left sweating on his job after the club's directors called an emergency board meeting in the wake of his remarks about Amy Rayner and his scathing attack on club chairman Bill Tomlins.

The board issued a statement where it described Newell's comments about Rayner as "completely unacceptable" and called a further meeting where they will ask him to explain his comments.

Earlier in the day, Newell, who was furious with Rayner for denying his team a penalty and then awarding a corner that enabled Queens Park Rangers to condemn his side to a fourth successive Championship defeat on Saturday, contacted Rayner and had what he described as "a good chat".

He said: "I obviously apologised to Amy but we talked about things and she was fine. Of course I think there is a place for women in football but what I don't agree with is having women in football just for the sake of it.

"If they are not good enough it amounts to tokenism and that is unacceptable. Sometimes you get chastised for being honest. I've spoken to my wife about it and she agrees with me. So does my mum and so does my sister. I rarely say things I don't mean but I probably need to hold my tongue sometimes."

Newell went on Sky Sports yesterday morning and issued a public apology to anyone he might have "offended" and admitted he had been "out of order".

But that did not stop the Luton board from calling a meeting at 4pm. As well as turning on Rayner, who did appear to get the corner decision wrong judging by video replay evidence, he strongly criticised his chairman, accusing Tomlins of contributing "nothing in two years".

Last night there were suggestions that other members of staff at Luton were being asked if Newell had made a sexist remark to them, while it also emerged that Newell has had problems with Tomlins dating back to the summer.

The two men are understood to have clashed over transfer policy and, in particular, the sale of players Newell believed Tomlins had undervalued. Tomlins, it has been claimed, was ready to sell Steve Howard to Cardiff City for somewhere in the region of £500,000.

After Newell intervened, Howard was sold to Derby County for £1million. A statement on the club's official website said: "Luton disassociates itself totally from the sexist comments made by Mike Newell, which have no place in this club and are completely unacceptable.

"Representatives of the board will be meeting the manager as a matter of urgency to ask him to explain his comments."