A youth football coach launched a scathing attack on the Football Association (FA) as he quit as the head of academy at Skelmersdale United FC following a dispute over homophobia in the game.
Daz Wildman, 47, was found guilty of improper conduct by a disciplinary process in September last year after his team refused to continue playing amid claims of abuse from a player and a manager of the opposing team.
After an appeal heard earlier this month, the sanctions imposed were dropped, but the charge of improper conduct remained, causing Daz to question the FA's commitment to tackling homophobia and bigotry in the sport.
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With 15 years of coaching behind him, it pained Daz to leave the young lads from disadvantaged backgrounds who he's helped in his time as a coach.
Daz told the ECHO: "I'm gutted, I won't lie. I've shed a few tears about it. I had to think long and hard.
"But I knew this was coming, so I've had two or three months to sort of protect my own mind as to what my decision was going.
"I'd already spoken to my friends, my family, my loved ones, and they wholeheartedly supported me.
"When you're waking up in the morning at half past four and you're getting a withheld number ringing you, you panic and you think, 'Oh what's going on, my mum's not in the greatest of health', and then it's some idiot telling me I need taking down an alley and f*****g to death'.
"That's just one of the threats that I've had, so eventually you've just got to do what's right for you, as painful as it is."
Daz reported this and other threats to the police.
Lancashire Police confirmed they received a report of malicious communication and that investigation is underway and enquiries ongoing.
Despite the torrent of anonymous abuse, Daz doesn't let this distract him from the cause he wants to highlight.
The FA's report of the appeal hearing states that, during a match between Skelmersdale U18s and Prestwich Heys in July 2021, a Prestwich player used a homophobic slur against a member of the opposing team.
The offending player was initially taken off, but Matthew Barnes, the Prestwich first team manager, reacted by hurling abuse towards Daz, the report states.
Barnes was found to have made comments including "you are a busy c*** you are... you need to f***ing grow up you k***head", according to a charge and sanction subsequently issued against him.
A pre-pandemic experience drove Daz to walk off this time around.
He said that, following a racist incident during a 2019 match, players were divided on whether or not they want to to walk off, and Daz encouraged them to play on.
Daz told the ECHO: "I wish I hadn't, and I actually vowed that I'll never do that again.
"If there's any sort of discrimination - racial, homophobic, anything - then we're off that pitch.
"And then once we get off that pitch, it's up to the players at that point, which is what we did."
But the toll of standing up to bigotry on the spot has destroyed Daz's faith in the FA's commitment to tackling homophobic abuse in sport.
The FA appeals panel’s findings noted that Daz acted "commendably", adding that "put simply, homophobic language must never be tolerated and would not be tolerated, as widely as it is, were more people to share the decency and integrity of [Daz]".
Ultimately, the panel dropped the sanctions but upheld the charge of improper conduct, which was brought against Daz for the walk-off that led to the match being abandoned.
Now he's walking away from the FA due to his lack of faith in their integrity and their ability to tackle abuse.
Daz said: "I'm a straight white male and I stood up to it, but I'm still being thrown under the bus.
"So how on earth are you expecting the first gay full-time footballer to come out?
"How on earth are you expecting people to stand up against discrimination, or make a stand against any form of discrimination if they can see a very, very public case of the throwing under the bus of a court who did do that?"
Daz added: "If you want to change society, sport is a reflection of what's going on in society, so this is why it's happening.
"[The FA] can hand out rainbow laces, they can put rainbow corner flags out, they can do multi-million pound media blitzes on how they are standing up to it - and they do do some amazing work.
"But the actual reality of it is, if you stand up to it, if you walk your kids off the pitch, or you take a stand as a player that's saying 'enough is enough', you'll actually be punished for it.
"And even the Commission said in their written statement, that they're unable to remove the misconduct because of the framework that they have to working within the FA's protocols."
Despite the panel describing Daz's actions as commendable, they decided that " Once the referee had concluded that the match could continue, that should have been determinative", and that " By causing the game to be abandoned, and, in so doing, usurping the authority of match officials, Daz's conduct was improper".
But Daz stands by his actions.
He said: "If you don't stand up to it and help other people just because you can, it's just going to continue, it's going to get worse, and eventually, one day, it's going to cost someone their life, whether that's through someone losing their temper on a football pitch, or throwing a punch - we've seen numerous times, one punch can kill - or someone being impacted to such a mental degree that they go and take their own life."
LancsLive reported that an FA spokesperson said: "We understand the concerns raised due to the varying factors involved in this particular case and we will remain in contact with Mr Wildman to see how the FA can best support him moving forward.
"The FA stands firmly against all forms of discrimination and one of our key strategic objectives over the next three years is to use our influence to deliver a game free from discrimination.
"We are striving to ensure our game is a safe environment for all, which truly embraces diversity and inclusion and challenges discriminatory conduct both on and off the pitch."
They added: "An independent Appeal Board considered an appeal from Darren Wildman on Friday 14 January 2022 in relation to a breach of FA Rule E3. The appeal was upheld on the basis the penalty, award, order or sanction was excessive.
"The independent Appeal Board ordered that the one match ground ban, £10 fine and five club penalty points are to be removed."
