Pep Guardiola Loses His Phenomenal Cool With Fourth Offiicial

The event above happened during Sunday's tie with Borussia Monchengladbach. Unfortunately for him the said fourth official happened to be a woman - the media has had a field day pointing out the fact that it was a female fourth official.  It is for this reason that I believe people are calling for some sort of ban against Pep, or some kind of strict punitive action to be taken against him. Yes, I agree that touching anyone you are not intimate with on the waste, and then the shoulder is rude behaviour and is just not the thing to do. I also agree that condescendingly shaking hands with someone and then violently disengaging from that person seconds later is definitely also rude behaviour. 

Cold As Ice: This is the Guardiola we all know. But he's still human.
Credit: Daily Mail

SEXISM?
But why go further and accuse the man of sexism? I don't see how his vigorous retrieval of his hand from her grip is an indication of sexism. Things were not going his team's way so he was having a rough day at the office. That is how most people react when they feel like the world is against them. They get pissed and they show it! 

I guess some people believe that he put his arm around her waist remind her that she was a lady and had no place on the football pitch, however these people could be absolutely wrong - and could be absolutely right on the other hand.

Yes, he might have put his arm around her waist because she is a lady, it is one of the propensities of heterosexual men. It does not mean that we are sexist or anything of the sort. For this reason I am not absolutely convinced that he was subtly - by touching her waist - trying to "put her in her place", so naturally I hesitate to make such an accusation. It is just a natural thing, a kind of Ying-Yang thing; man's hands gravitate toward's woman's waist, no offence intended.

It could also be that Pep has a knack for putting his arms around people's - members of both sexes - waists as do lots of men out there. It could be a personal or cultural thing, who knows, however misconstruing that as sexism would be unfair to the man.

In conclusion, I'll say that calling for a couple of matches ban or some other form of grave punishment for his behaviour towards the female official definitely qualifies as an overkill. Yes, he has to make a formal apology to her and some other kind of punishment with fits the crime should be meted out by the football authorities. In other words, the punishment should fit the crime.