Junior football referees are being subjected to 'toxic' abuse during amateur games, causing many to leave the role, league bosses have warned.
One incident saw a youth official threatened by an adult coach who said 'I am going to f****** t*** him after', while other youngsters have been called 'f****** cheats', a senior administrator says.
Warren Barlow, league secretary at the Bolton, Bury and District Football League, penned an open letter warning players and coaches about 'verbals and aggression' beginning during the build-up to games and continuing throughout.
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The league includes 753 boy and girls junior teams and over 10,000 players but Mr Barlow says that there is a shortage of referees, with many quitting because of the abuse they receive.
He wrote: "The toxic behaviour hasn’t even stopped when we have allocated a junior referee to a game as we have had a few who have been referred to as 'f***ing cheats' and we have had players, coaches and referees threatened with violence and we even had a grown man who was a coach, shout to one of our junior referees who he had sent him off from the touchline 'I am going to f***ing t**t him after', and this came shortly after the teams had held a minutes silence for Bryan Clark, a referee in our league who sadly passed away recently.
"It beggars’ belief how low some people stoop in the game.
"We have had many reports from teams about the behaviour of others and this has included toxic aggressive behaviour from the moment a team arrives whether a league referee was present or not.
"There is a national shortage of referees and this is the number 1 reason why they quit the game and we cannot blame them, as it just isn’t worth the grief to turn up and try your best only to be abused and threatened."
Mr Barlow said that the abusive behaviour was taking place during both boys and girls games and was coming from adults who 'should know better, the ones who should be setting the example'.
In the letter, which was posted on social media and the league website, he warned that teams could face 14-day bans from playing or even be expelled from the competition if problems persist.
He added: "It is really sad and disappointing that we have to send this note out to the members of the BBDFL, but its now become a critical issue not just for our league, but for leagues nationally and that is the toxic atmosphere at games from the pre-match build up, with emails and social media posts of a toxic nature, to the game day itself, the abuse to opposition and sadly to the referees who become the brunt of much of this toxic behaviour in addition to the post-match verbal’s and aggression which has continued long after the game has concluded."
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