A BUSINESSMAN who flew across the Atlantic to watch Lichfield City’s 8-0 win over Highgate United got closer than he expected to the action.
In a bizarre turn of events at The Trade Tyre Community Stadium, Jonathon Stone – owner of the club’s shirt sponsor Blue Breaks Sports Cards LLC – took the assistant referee’s flag in the second half after an injury to the referee.
The owner of the American trading card company was visiting the city from his home in Florida for the first time in 2025.
After seeing City go 5-0 up in the first half, the last thing that Stone was expecting was to feature in the game itself.
But during the break, the match referee pulled up with an unexpected injury, rendering him unable to officiate the remaining 45 minutes.
As the only other qualified official in the stadium, the businessman was called upon to run the line while one of his counterparts stood in as referee.
Jonathan said he thought Lichfield’s officials were joking when they first asked him.
He said:
“The club came over, said that the referee’s pulled his hamstring and asked if I could run the line?
“I thought that they were joking, obviously. But they were serious, so I had to run out to the car and get my contact lenses to make it look like I knew what I was doing.
“Thankfully, they had a kit and boots the right size, so I got changed and the second half still started relatively on time.
“It was tough because yes, you have a vested interest, but you also want to be as impartial as you possibly can – although thankfully not a lot happened in the grand scheme of things. It was fun.”
Jonathan also revealed that he had more than one string to his sports officiating bow.
“I actually qualified as a referee with Birmingham FA in 1996, so it’s been a few years.
“I then moved the US in 2012 and still refereed in division one college – which is one of their top levels – but it’s been over ten years since I did a game in the UK.
“I was also a professional tennis umpire. I did Serena Williams’ 2010 Wimbledon final win and I’m actually a minor league baseball umpire right now too.”
The proud sponsor was full of praise for Lichfield after the final result and said he was pleased to be linked to the club.
“It’s always fun being back – but with Lichfield not tying up the title yet I may be back for the Romulus game.
“When I first reached out the club, I think they were probably unsure about a weird American guy and why would he want to sponsor us, but it’s been so good.
“We’ve got customers in the store in Florida that wear Lichfield City shirts now – and we even have some of them that want to come over for a game.”