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She’s just trying to clean up the sport

A woman soccer referee has been charged with bringing the game into disrepute by taking a postmatch shower with male players.

The English Football Association took action against Janet Fewings, a 41-year-old mother-of-four, after the wives and girlfriends of the players complained.

If found guilty, Fewings faces a fine, suspension and the loss of her referee’s registration although she says she’s made repeated requests for separate facilities.

“Referees and players have been asking for privacy and shower curtains,” Fewings said. “I hope the players will back me but I fear the FA will try and shut me out and restrict me to refereeing games only where there are separate facilities.”

Why do we sense an Irish Spring commercial coming on?

So much for latter day sainthood

BYU basketball coach Roger Reid has apologized to the family of prize recruit Chris Burgess but denies he told the Mormon youth he let down the church’s leaders when he picked Duke over BYU.

Meanwhile, the father of another high-profile Mormon athlete said Reid made similar comments when his son, Travis Knight, now of the Los Angeles Lakers, chose to play at Connecticut.

“He said I let nine million people down. He said I was letting down the prophet and the apostles,” said Burgess, a 6-foot-11 prospect from Irvine, Calif., who was heavily recruited by BYU for three years.

The response from BYU?

“I’d just as soon that those things hadn’t been said,” BYU Athletic Director Rondo Fehlberg said.

Claimed Reid, “I don’t speak for the church and I don’t speak for the prophet. I didn’t mention he’d let the prophet down. I said 9 million members of the church.”

Greg Knight, father of Travis Knight, said Reid berated his son when he decided to go to Connecticut by saying he was “letting down the church, that God had wanted him to play at BYU. He then went and criticized us as parents and questioned our level of commitment in the church.”

So remember, tithe either 10 percent of your income or a 7-foot first-born.

Maybe next time, coach

Insubordination is in in college football. Iowa backup quarterback Ryan Driscoll refused to enter the final minutes of the Hawkeyes’ 40-13 loss to Northwestern.

“I don’t consider myself a mop-up guy,” Driscoll said. “Physically, I wasn’t ready. I was frozen. I didn’t think I could help the team. They didn’t give me any warning. If they would have said, ‘Get ready, you’re going in the next series,’ I would have said, ‘Fine.”’

Get ready, Ryan. You’re not going in again, ever.

We’re still in Kansas City, though, Toto

The Wiz are now the Wizards.

Kansas City’s Major League Soccer franchise is changing its name after an East Coast electronics retailer, Nobody Beats the Wiz, raised questions about trademark rights to the name “Wiz” and its promotional use.

Why not “the Whiz?” Betcha no one has trademark rights to that.

The last word …

“If this pay-per-round thing in boxing was applied to Dave Krieg, it would be pay-per-spiral.”

- Chicago Tribune columnist Bernie Lincicome

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo