Referee David McNamara has been suspended for three weeks after accepting a charge of “not acting in the best interests of the game” before a Women’s Super League match in which he used a game of rock, paper, scissors instead of the traditional coin toss to decide who should kick off.

A Football Association spokesperson confirmed that McNamara will return to duty from 17 December.

The FA said McNamara did not oversee an official coin toss, which is required under the laws of the game, before Manchester City faced Reading last month in the WSL.

It is understood that McNamara, after leaving his coin in the dressing room, had City’s captain Steph Houghton and Reading’s captain Kirsty Pearce play a game of rock, paper, scissors to decide who would kick off and start at which end.

“The FA can confirm that referee David McNamara has been suspended for 21 days, starting from Monday 26 November, after accepting a charge of ‘not acting in the best interests of the game’, an FA spokesperson said.

“This follows an incident in the WSL match between Manchester City and Reading on Friday 26 October, when he failed to determine which team would kick off the match by the toss of a coin, as required by the laws of the game.

“McNamara will return to duty from Monday 17 December.”