Claim: Coach made kid rub nose in dirt

Football South is investigating after a coach was alleged to have made a junior player rub his nose in the dirt and gloated about it afterwards.

Mark Joyce posted on social media saying he was watching a game of 12-13 year-olds in Dunedin on Saturday when a coach forced one of his players to rub their nose in the dirt.

Joyce said he confronted the grade 13 coach, which led to a heated exchange.

Football South chief executive Chris Wright said his organisation would investigate the incident. ‘‘We have a process for dealing with issues and we’ll work through that because it’s really important that it’s followed,’’ Wright said.

‘‘It’s just a simple one really, getting all sides of the story and making sure of the facts and understanding what really happened and seeing how that applies to the code of conducts.

‘‘At the moment all we’ve got is one report from someone who observed the incident and it’s important we don’t make any assumptions until we’ve got all of the information so at the moment it could be something that was simply misunderstood or it could be really bad.

‘‘However, based on the information we’ve got we are obviously worried about it because on the face of it sounds very disappointing and the most important thing from our point of view is the quality of the experience the safety of the player at the centre, so that’s the perspective we take on any incident.’’

At this stage, Wright said he did not know which clubs were involved in the match.

‘‘. . . it’s important we don’t make any assumptions . . .’’