Referee decision costs woman $1 million

Llevi Noel - #84 of the Toronto Argonauts - was penalised, costing a fan $1 million dollars. Photo / Getty

A Canadian woman says a "bad call" by a football referee cost her $1 million.

Karen Kuldys stood to land the seven figure windfall because she was part of a contest that offered a $1 million prize if two touchdowns were scored from kick returns in a gridiron match between the Toronto Argonauts and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the Canadian Football League (CFL) on Friday.

She would have been ecstatic when Toronto running back Martice Jackson appeared to score the second touchdown of the match from a kick return, but the play didn't stand because the referee ruled his teammate Llevi Noel performed an illegal block.

Here's the $1 million penalty that will haunt Karen forever. #Argos #Bombers #CFL pic.twitter.com/Djwxg0Acht

— Devin Heroux (@Devin_Heroux) July 14, 2017

Kuldys didn't agree with the official, saying he made a mistake that robbed her of the massive payday.

"I knew it was a bad call, we had tickets in the 1970s, we love our Bombers, my son is a quarterback ... we love football," Kuldys told The Sports Network (TSN).

"I knew it was a bad call because I didn't see anything wrong ... he (Noel) never did anything wrong."

Canadian supermarket chain Sobeys was sponsoring the contest and while it won't be parting with $1 million, it did offer Kuldys some consolation in the form of a year's worth of free groceries and season tickets to Blue Bombers games.

Another company sponsoring the contest - Air Miles - chipped in too, handing Kuldys $50,000 worth of frequent flyer miles.

"It's awesome I'm very happy with that, but as everybody says it's not a million dollars," Kuldys said.

CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie said referees have a tough job to make split-second decisions and their judgment should be respected, but was sympathetic towards Kuldys.

"There are tough calls made all the time in our game because these are world-class athletes moving at tremendous speeds, and we ask our officials to make difficult judgment calls in the blink of an eye, and we have to respect their decisions," Ambrosie said.

"We all feel for Karen and what she must have gone through last night."