MELBOURNE, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Australian Rules umpire Leigh Haussen has been banned from officiating in the opening round of next season because he wore an Osama bin Laden costume at a function, the Australian Football League said on Monday.
Haussen dressed up as the founder of the al Qaeda militant group, who was killed in 2011 in a U.S. special operations raid, in September at an end-of-season celebration for AFL match officials in a private room at a Melbourne restaurant, where the theme was "characters from the 2000s".
The AFL said in a statement that the costume had been "inappropriate, offensive and in poor taste" and Haussen apologised for his actions in a statement.
"I am sorry. I made an error of judgement. I never intended to offend anyone," he said.
AFL umpiring chief Stephen McBurney said Haussen previously had an "unblemished" record in seven years of officiating in the league and would be welcomed back after the ban.
The AFL last month banned six Greater Western Sydney players for periods of up to four matches and fined seven others after what the league considered to be "unacceptable" costumes were worn and sketches performed at an end-of-season function.
"There is nothing funny or clever about these actions and we are not as a code and competition prepared to accept these behaviours," AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon said at the time.
The next AFL season will start in March.
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney in Sydney, editing by Peter Rutherford)
((Nick.Mulvenney@tr.com; +61 403 574 069;))
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