Parrot banned from football ground for imitating referee's whistle

A parrot has been banished from a football ground because it kept imitating the referee's whistle during an crunch match. The seven-goal shoot-out between Hatfield Town and Hertford Heath turned to chaos when the bright green parrot began distracting players, causing the match to stop and start repeatedly.

The bird had turned heads before kick-off in Hertfordshire when a woman brought it to the match in a cage. It behaved itself for the first-half of the quarter-final cup tie between the two non-league teams, watching play swing from end to end.

But 10 minutes into the second-half it began mimicking the referee's whistle, causing confusion on and off the pitch. The match was halted and the woman and her parrot were told to leave the pitch-side.



Referee Gary Bailey said: "I've never known anything like it in my football career. It was a big game and there were quite a lot of people there. This woman was standing right by the touchline and suddenly unveiled a big cage with this big green parrot in it.

"I didn't mind at first. But then every time I blew my whistle the bird made exactly the same sound. The players all stopped so I had to ask her to move the parrot. It was bizarre. The crowd were all laughing. Looking back I should have made far more of it and got out my red card to show to the parrot."

Hatfield Town swooped into the semi-final of the Hertfordshire Senior Centenary Trophy beating Hertford Heath 5-2 after extra-time.