Abandoned game the tip of the iceberg for Northland football incidents

As a football referee for 30 years, Northland acting referee development officer Warren Bunn is urging players to respect their refs. Photo / John Stone

The first abandoned Northland football game in 20 years because of the alleged player and fan behaviour is the latest in a string of serious incidents occurring in Northland and Auckland football.

Serious incidents, broadly defined as racist, sexist, violent and anti-social behaviour, which have been recorded by the Northland and Auckland football federations (NFF/AFF) in 2019 include: continued abuse of match officials by players, coaches and spectators, violent incidents on-field and off-field, and numerous counts of anti-social conduct by players, coaches and supporters across all grades.

In Auckland, two serious incidents involving an alleged assault by an adult on a child under 18 years of age and the alleged physical and verbal intimidation of an opposition at an under-12 grade competition have occurred this season.

The abandoned game was a Northland senior men's Stafford Choat Cup round one fixture between the Ngunguru Football Club and Paihia Football Club third division sides at the Ngunguru Sports Complex on Saturday, June 2.

The Northern Advocate has seen the incident report filed by the referee after the game and has chosen not to name the referee or the players involved.

On Friday, Paihia FC third division coach Dene Harrison said he had not seen the referee's incident report and would not comment on the game or the report until he had read it. Harrison could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Ngunguru Football Club's third division coach preferred not to comment on the events of the game.

The report said trouble began in the second half when the referee awarded a throw-in to Ngunguru after two opposing players had challenged for the ball and it went out.

It said a Paihia player was unhappy with the decision and questioned the referee's call. The player allegedly called the referee "blind" and was issued a yellow card.

The report alleged that the same player proceeded to use foul language, allegedly including homophobic slurs directed at the referee for which he was given another yellow card and sent from the field.

At this point, the report said, Paihia supporters who were nearby started to shout obscenities towards the referee along with the player who continued to insult the referee allegedly using homophobic language as the player was walking off the pitch.

The report said around the game's 75th minute, the referee approached the Paihia coach and asked him to control the supporters as they were behaving in an allegedly irresponsible manner.

During this time, the report said a second Paihia player, who was brought on as a substitute in the second half, was making a number of 50/50 challenges with a Ngunguru player and was allegedly clearly frustrated with the state of the game.

The report said a short time later, the referee momentarily stopped the game after an off the ball incident between these two players which was further inflamed by Paihia supporters. At the suggestion of the Ngunguru captain, both teams were given two minutes to discuss playing the game in a fair spirit.

Afterwards, while the referee was tending to an injured player, the report said an altercation occurred behind the referee where a number of Paihia supporters had stormed on to the pitch, one of whom had allegedly begun to push and threaten a Ngunguru player, shouting expletives and homophobic abuse.

The referee then went to ask the Paihia coach to control these supporters. In the report, the referee said the coach seemed angry and then allegedly proceeded to swear at the referee and kick a water bottle in the referee's direction.

At this point, the report said the referee felt the Paihia coach was not in a position to control his supporters or players and that the next strong challenge would inflame hostilities and could become violent.

As a result the game was abandoned with about 10 minutes to go with the score at 3-2 to Ngunguru. NFF confirmed the score will stand as a Ngunguru win as the referee reported Paihia FC were responsible for the abandonment.

The potential minimum penalty for dissent and abuse towards a match official is a four-game ban and a possible fine. NFF's competitions team has received multiple reports from the game and will evaluate those before deciding whether any sanctions would apply.

Former Tikipunga AFC player Blake Moorhouse (right) was involved in a serious incident earlier this season. Photo / File

NFF acting referee development officer Warren Bunn said he could not remember a game in the last two decades which had been abandoned in Northland for similar behaviour.

He believed inappropriate behaviour towards referees, including homophobic and racist remarks, was becoming more prevalent in junior and senior football. Bunn said the behaviour shown in the game was intolerable and the referee's decision to stop the game was justified.

"It's unacceptable and when [the players, supporters and coach] think back, they probably think they overreacted but at the end of the day, coaches have got to balance their passion with respect."

Bunn said Northland had lost six referees in two years for varying reasons. Three of those were some of Northland's most experienced referees and Bunn said players needed to treat new referees with the same respect.

"It takes anything from two to five years to develop a good referee and these [incidents] don't help.

"At the end of the day, the players have got to accept if it's a junior referee, they are going to make mistakes and you've just got to step back and understand without a referee, you can't play."

Interestingly, this referee volunteered to officiate the Paihia/Ngunguru game as there was no referee assigned to the game and it was directly before a game he was originally supposed to officiate.

Bunn, who has been a referee for 30 years, said he understood a player's right to question the referee but urged them to do so in an appropriate manner.

"By all means, if you're unsure, query a decision but in a respectful manner and the referee should tell you why, but we don't want every single decision being queried."

NFF chief executive John Limna said it was likely some action would have to be taken following the Paihia/Ngunguru game but could not specify the level of any possible sanctions.

"It's not acceptable, no excuses and those involved have to be held accountable for their actions," he said.

"The fact that a referee abandoned a match means that something has to be followed up on and action would need to be taken on that."

Limna confirmed one Northland senior men's team had already been put on a final warning while another Northland team had been given a warning in 2019. By being on a final warning, this team would be immediately kicked out of the competition if one more incident occurred.

In a letter from AFF/NFF sent to all affiliated clubs on May 23 obtained by the Northern Advocate, it said AFF and NFF had been, "consistently called upon to investigate serious incidents rather than focus on the management and delivery of competitions" in 2019.

While he acknowledged dealing with serious incidents wasted time and resources, Limna said the majority of people who were behaving appropriately should not worry about the quality of competition AFF and NFF could provide.

"We've put the resources in place to deal with [serious incidents], we are not looking to compromise on the majority, we are looking to enhance what we do and always improve the competitions."

Limna said there was no significant difference in the number of serious incidents which had occurred at this stage of the 2019 season compared with 2018, but would not confirm how many had occurred.

He said statistics gathered by NFF showed cards issued in games for dissent and abuse of a match official by a player had decreased from 190 in 2016 to 144 in 2018. In 2019, 14 red cards had been issued so far for dissent and abuse of a match official across all AFF/NFF competitions.

Earlier this year, a former Tikipunga AFC player Blake Moorhouse had his club membership revoked after his actions in a Northland premier men's game against Kaeo-Inter on April 27.

Limna believed there was a sanction given to Moorhouse by the NFF after the incident and would come into force if the player signed with another club.

Limna encouraged clubs to be proactive by filing reports to NFF when incidents of any kind occurred as it would be taken into consideration if clubs or their members were involved in these incidents.