A RAILWAY League match was abandoned two minutes from the end when a sent off player refused to leave the ground. The incident happened during Rangers’ clash with Bels at St Andrew’s on Saturday. Mark Fallaize was the referee but declined to comment when approached yesterday.
‘A full report has gone in and it’s now in the hands of the GFA,’ is all that he would say.
Rangers were 4-2 up at the time when Fallaize showed Dan Billien a direct red card for foul and abusive language.
It is reported that the situation escalated between the referee and Billien to the extent that the official ordered the Rangers player, who was continuing to vent his displeasure, out of the ground.
When Billien refused to do so, Fallaize called off the match in the 88th minute.
It is understood that this was not the first time that the referee and this player have had problems on the football pitch.
The Guernsey Football Association are due to discuss the matter on Monday.
It is unknown at the moment whether the match will be replayed or not.
Rangers Railway boss Stuart Coburn was unable to be reached yesterday and the head of local referees, Graham Skuse, also declined to comment on the issue, saying only: ‘The referee’s report has come in and it will be discussed next Monday night.’
All this comes in the wake of a pilot scheme to limit bad behaviour in football which was issued by the head of the FA Brian Barwick.
One of the initiatives allows only the captain to speak to the referee.
Two top FA officials were also in the island recently to talk to local referees about dealing with bad behaviour and specifically foul and abusive language.
Article posted on 24th October, 2007 - 12.00am
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