A referee has accidentally sent himself off and will now serve a three-match ban, it has emerged.

The referee, as yet unnamed, inadvertently gave himself his marching orders in what has come as the latest in a string of bizarre officiating blunders.

Eyewitnesses have spoken of their confusion as the referee called himself over, took his own name down and then showed himself the red card as stunned onlookers looked on, all stunned and onlooking.

Speaking exclusively to Football Burp, Gareth, a stunned onlooker from County Durham, described how the referee initially protested his own innocence to himself before giving himself a little shove.

He roared: “He shouldn’t have shoved himself like that, that’s just asking for retroactive punishment.

“That three-match ban could become a year-long worldwide ban and he’d only have himself to blame for sending himself off in the first place.”

Commentators and pundits are said to be “all aquiver” at the thought of a similar incident taking place in the near future, at which they’d get to chortle heartily along in recollection this incidence.

One pundit said: “I’m all aquiver.”