Investigation sparked and children's football team in Northamptonshire suspended following 'serious incident'

An investigation has been launched and a children’s grassroots football team in Northamptonshire suspended following a ‘serious incident’ over the weekend.

Northants FA issued a statement yesterday (November 27) saying that it is investigating a serious incident that took place at a youth football match in the county on Sunday (November 26).

The statement reads: “Northamptonshire FA is aware of a serious incident in a youth game involving a club referee. Having reviewed the evidence currently available, the team in question has been suspended immediately pending further investigation, which the club is fully assisting with. The referee has been contacted and offered our full support. Northamptonshire FA will not tolerate any form of abuse towards match officials and is disappointed that we need to remind participants of this.”

Northants FA did not release any further details about the incident or location.

Reacting online, one person wrote: “What is the world coming to? I hope the referee is doing well. People need to remember this is children's football. Absolutely ridiculous.”

Another said: “This is awful; it's not even surprising, which makes it even worse."

In 2021, due to the growing concern of incidents in the county, Northants FA launched a ‘zero tolerance’ campaign, aiming to stamp out abusive behaviour towards referees.

At the time, the county FA said that the actions of a minority will not be tolerated and highlighted bans of five years that had been given out after unacceptable incidents since the start of the 2021/2022 season.

In other football related incidents in the county, Northamptonshire Police recently said they are still investigating a fight between two amateur football teams which took place between 11am and 11.30am on Sunday October 9, 2022 at a school playing field in Kingsland Gardens, Kingsthorpe. A video of the brawl, which left a man in his 20s hospitalised and the match abandoned, was widely shared across social media, which led to police asking for footage to be sent into them quoting the incident number 22000589416.