A YOUTH football match had to be abandoned at Petersfield's Love Lane on Sunday after parents from the visiting side 'abused, bullied and intimidated' the 14-year-old referee. Horrified Petersfield Town Juniors chairman Ian Essai said it was the worst incident he had ever witnessed from supporters of such young footballers. And he was angry that the foul language and intimidation had been carried out within the hearing of around 300 people at a packed Love Lane on Sunday for the match involving Petersfield under-nines and their opponents from Portsmouth. The shocking scenes of abuse were witnessed by 60 six, seven and eight year olds and their parents who were involved in training sessions and matches on neighbouring pitches. Mr Essai said Petersfield Town Juniors fully supported the action taken by the young referee for the way he had handled the 'absolutely appalling' situation. This week, Mr Essai wrote a letter of complaint to the secretary of the Portsmouth Youth League and has also contacted the Football Association, the Hampshire Football Association, the Referees' Association, and the chairman of the visiting Portsmouth Chimes Football Club. He said the intimidation began from supporters of the Pompey Chimes under-nines before the match even started. "One of the Pompey Chimes (players') parents walked up to our referee while he was checking the side's boots, took his glasses off, wiped them, and put them back saying 'I will clean these so you can see what you are doing.'" said Mr Essai. "The ref chose to treat the incident in a jovial way, but it was the first sign of the intimidation and bullying of the referee which went on throughout the game." "He carried on with the game for the sake of the children, but the abuse just escalated. It was a difficult situation." It continued despite the fact that the referee gave parents of Pompey Chimes players and their manager five verbal warnings, said Mr Essai. Eventually, with just 10 minutes left and the scores level at 2-2, the referee took the decision to end the match. Mr Essai said he was keen to stress that this type of incident was rare, but added: "The abuse on Sunday was ghastly. "I was quite shellshocked. Fortunately, this sort of thing only happens once or twice a year, but this was the worst I have ever seen at this young age group. You do get excitable parents, but you don't expect this sort of language, and the Petersfield Town Juniors club will not tolerate it." Mr Essai was particularly concerned because the abusive parents were within earshot of the six, seven and eight-year-old footballers, watched by their parents, taking part in pre-match training nearby. "These youngsters will be moving into the league next year and I don't want them or their parents subjected to this kind of language." There were also three other youth matches taking place on adjoining pitches and the under-nines match itself was being watched by some 40 or 50 parents, said Mr Essai. "I believe the intimidation was coming from just two or three Pompey parents, but the fact that it was going on in front of small children really gets to me." Mr Essai said Petersfield Town Juniors was discussing the implementation of new policies to ensure this would not be repeated. He said the club was moving away from the south Hampshire leagues towards north Hampshire in a bid to "get away from this sort of behaviour". "It is our strategy to encourage young referees and our policy is to put these fully-qualified young referees with young sides and we don't want this sort of thing putting them off. This is the start of the season and the town juniors' parents watching the game were absolutely appalled." Mr Essai said the decision to stop the match had been taken entirely by the referee, adding: "Club officials will not interfere, but on Sunday I and another club official went to support the referee. We asked the Pompey Chimes manager and the parents to be quiet." He paid tribute to the 14 year old in charge of the game, saying: "Petersfield Town Juniors are proud of the way the referee conducted himself. He acted in a mature and responsible way, which is what you would expect of a referee, and we completely support his decisions." Adrian Harris, manager of Portsmouth Chimes under-9Bs, said: "There were no swear words said to the referee. The parents were questioning his decisions. There's no room in the children's game for swearing at a referee, and it never happened. "We are a new club and have five or six friendlies and two league games. There's never been any problem. "At the end of the day the referee was getting questioned for his decisions. We couldn't get any sense out of him. It was all joking before the game, with no malice or anything like that. This is just stupid." Mr Harris said parents of the Pompey Chimes players believed the referee had been biased and the Portsmouth side's linesman was being ignored, but he denied any parent had sworn at any time during the match.
