NORTH EAST FOOTBALL LEAGUE - STATEMENT

NORTH EAST FOOTBALL LEAGUE

In light of recent events concerning the unprovoked attack on a NEFL match official in the Division One match between Bay FC v Sporting BJD, and the disciplinary decision that followed that game, the committee took it upon them themselves to carry out a review of all the match reports of this game. 

Following this review, The NEFL committee have decided to hand the named individual from Sporting BJD, who was named on the Management team sheet an Automatic ban, plus 2 matches as per FAI recommendations. 

In relation to the offence itself, where a player allegedly assaulted a Match official, this matter is now with the FAI Disciplinary unit as per rules when a match official is assaulted, and we will await the outcome of this hearing and respect in full the FAI Disciplinary Unit process.

We, as a Voluntary football body will endeavour to take all assaults against match officials, whether it be verbal or physical in a serious manner and will try to take in all accounts in these cases. 

As a league, we haven't faced anything like this before and we hope that we never see this type of behaviour again. We as a sporting body respect our referees and the position they play in our matches and the league as a whole. Without our match officials, there would be no games in the league. 

We would hope that the NEFL football community can get through this horrible incident together, and learn as a group and get back to doing what we do best, playing football in a good spirit. 

Our immediate concerns are for the match official who was assaulted and that he makes a full recovery from the attack, physically and mentally, and we would hope to see him back in the middle of our games where he will feel the love and support from all our clubs in the NEFL. 

Yours in Sport

John Gorman

NEFL Chairman