Referee pays for tiff with Wenger

Referee Paul Taylor has paid the ultimate penalty for his brush last season with Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger by losing his place on the National Referees' List next season.

The 41-year-old BT personnel manager is the only official on the list to lose his place for low markings.

Though his expulsion is not related to one specific incident, there is little doubt that his notoriety last season over the incident with Wenger did not help his cause.

Wenger was accused of pushing Taylor, who was then acting as a fourth official, in the players' tunnel at Sunderland after a 1-0 Arsenal defeat last August. It was at the personal initiative of FA chief executive Adam Crozier that Wenger was charged and in October he was given a 12-match ban.

In February, Wenger had the ban over-turned by a panel which included QC Charles Hollander and FA chairman Geoff Thompson.

Taylor was also accused by Notts County that he had made insulting remarks towards County player Sean Farrell in a game against Wigan last October.

But a disciplinary commission meeting in Birmingham last February dismissed the case against him.