Mob in ‘worst’ attack on ref
A MOB attack on an amateur referee in London has been labelled as ‘the worst assault on a match official on British soil’. The 28-year-old official was refereeing a Cup final organised by the Turkish Community Football Federation (TCFF) in Wood Green on Sunday. He sent off two players from the losing side, GS FC, and all hell broke loose at the final whistle. Video footage on social media yesterday showed the official, named on a Turkish website as Fernando Lopes, fleeing from players and supporters before being brought to the ground. He was then kicked by 10-15 people before the clip ends. London Metropolitan Police confirmed they were called to the scene. However, the suspects had fled the scene and the referee declined to press charges. An official from the TCFF said the referee, an official for the London FA for 11 years, had ‘several bruises but thankfully suffered no breakages’. The TCFF intend to haul the team into a meeting on Tuesday and kick the club out of the league. A Turkish league source said: ‘We want them out. It’s disgusting. We want life bans once we can prove who did it.’ The footage was sent to the charity Ref Support to aid its ‘Referee Abuse Must Stop’ campaign. ‘This is the worst assault on a match official we have seen on British soil,’ said their chief executive Martin Cassidy. ‘The FA referees department needs to allow a pilot of body cams at grassroots level, to not only act as a deterrent to assaults and abuse but also for evidence collecting.’