Darwin Olympic receives sanction after abuse of junior referee

A POPULAR Darwin sporting club are again in hot water after a junior referee was verbally abused

Darwin Olympic Sporting Club are again in hot water after reports of a 14-year-old referee being verbally abused

DARWIN Olympic FC are in hot water once again with Football Federation NT after reports of one their officials verbally abusing a junior line referee in an under-16 match, reducing her to tears.

Following the club’s previous misdemeanours last month, where Olympic fans abused referees resulting in spectator bans and a deduction of three championship points, the latest infringement stemmed from a match on August 4 at Bagot Oval.

It has resulted in a further suspended sanction of seven championship points to their men’s pemier league side which was imposed by FFNT CEO Bruce Stalder.

DARWIN Olympic spectators cop fines and ban after official abuse

The NT News understands this has also resulted in action from FFNT referees, who have placed a one week boycott on officiating junior matches with Olympic, reportedly citing fears for referee safety outside the security monitored confines of Larrakia Park at the Marrara complex.

REFEREES boycott Darwin Olympic after spectator abuse

This follows a previous FFNT referee boycott on Olympic after their previous July infringements.

Hello there @TheRealBozza @adampeacock3 @JDESTOOP80_FOX @TaraRushton @DanielGarb we have a matter of pressing urgency concerning the state of Football in the Northern Territory. Can someone please reach back out to our community club? We are at risk of being destroyed entirely.

— Darwin Olympic Sporting Club (@DarwinOlympicSC) August 15, 2019

In response, Olympic FC have taken to social media to engage with Fox Sports correspondents Daniel Garb, Adam Peacock and Mark Bosnich, ABC journalist Tracey Holmes and football community page The Clean Sheet with claims of unfair treatment by FFNT and Stalder, stating their club is “at risk of being destroyed entirely”.

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The club also posted screen grabs on Facebook, which have since been deleted, showing dialogue between them and FFNT referee boss Albert Karause, who did not want to meet with Olympic as they were “not taking full accountability for their previous unacceptable incident”.

More to come.