I’ll be back, says linesman with broken jaw as man charged over soccer attack

An entire soccer team has been withdrawn from a suburban Sydney competition after a Greenacre Eagles player who attended as a spectator allegedly punched a linesman after Friday night’s match, leaving his jaw broken in three places.

The incident renewed questions over clubs’ ability to deal with spectator violence and intensified concerns about disrespect putting people off becoming referees, as NSW Sports Minister Steve Kamper described the assault as “absolutely unacceptable”.

Khodr Yaghi has been refereeing soccer for 24 years and will continue to do so despite having his jaw broken in three places.

A 25-year-old man was arrested at Bankstown police station on Sunday afternoon following the attack. He was charged on Sunday evening with wounding a person with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and affray.

Khodr Yaghi, a referee of 24 years, was acting as a linesman when the Eagles took on the Padstow Hornets in a Bankstown District Premier League match in south-west Sydney. The match finished about 10.30pm, and Greenacre lost 5-1.

Texting from his hospital bed on Sunday, as his injury prevented him from speaking, Yaghi said the man was a player who was attending as a spectator because he had been suspended for an unrelated incident, and alleged he had become abusive at the end of the match.

He said he asked a ground official to intervene, but the man allegedly persisted in “swearing and abusing us badly for no reason”.

The linesman’s jaw was broken after an alleged punch to the face.

As the man allegedly raised his fists, Yaghi “tried to push him away” with his linesman’s stick. A video shows the man walked away, escorted by a friend, but then turned around and appeared to repeatedly punch Yaghi as other members of the Eagles tried to pull him off.

“This guy came from behind me and attacked me,” Yaghi alleged. “Straight on my face. With his hands and legs all on my head and face.”

The video then shows Yaghi – who referees games in the NSW state soccer league as well as in district competitions – bleeding from the mouth. On Sunday, he said that his jaw was broken in three places, he had lost several teeth and was still bleeding.

The Greenacre Eagles condemned the violence and withdrew the team – its top men’s team – from the competition for the rest of the season. “This serves as a reminder to all that violence will not be tolerated at our club,” it said in a statement.

Yaghi had witnessed many incidents during his 24 years as a referee, “but this was the worst”, he said. The fields were public “so [there are] always suspended players around”, Yaghi said, but “I think we should have more active ground officials”.

Yaghi said teams were supposed to supply a minimum of three officials each but, at this match, each supplied only one. Representatives for Greenacre and Padstow were contacted for comment.

However, he would return to the pitch. “I’m coming back ASAP,” said Yaghi. “No one will stop me from refereeing, ever.”

Referees and clubs can penalise players and officials, but not spectators. However, if spectators are acting outside the spirit of the game, the referee can stop a match. The Padstow incident happened after the final whistle was blown.

Football NSW said it had “zero tolerance for any antisocial behaviour from any of its participants at any time,” while the Bankstown District Amateur Football Association also issued a statement saying it would not tolerate any violence.

The incident is the latest to cast a shadow over the sport. Last August, the riot squad was called in to break up a brawl in which spectators shouted and threw flares and road signs at each other outside Leichhardt Oval after a match between Sydney FC and the Central Coast Mariners.

Last December, Melbourne Victory fans ran onto the field and assaulted player Tom Glover and referee Alex King during an A-League derby on December 17 against Melbourne City at AAMI Park.

NSW Premier Chris Minns noted the critical role that officials, often young, have in the success of amateur sporting organisations. “It’s appalling to hear,” he told reporters.

“You cannot run these leagues that entertain, give our kids an opportunity to play as part of a team, get out of the house and play a team sport, unless people – often young people – agree to be referees in those games,” he said.

Kamper, a former president of Sydney Olympic Football Club, said the attack was “absolutely unacceptable”. “All referees and all players should feel safe wherever they’re participating in local sport,” he said.

Soccer has a reputation for fan violence, but Hunter Fujak, a lecturer in Sports Management at Deakin University and author of Code Wars, said the sport had the highest participation of any in Australia, so there was “more opportunity for incidents,” he said.

“On a per-capita basis you have to start questioning whether it’s truly as bad as it might appear,” he said. Fujak said clubs were usually run by volunteers so needed support and resources from organisations such as Sport Integrity Australia to manage incidents.

Deakin Sport Management Professor Pamm Phillips said her research has shown that in most sports, there is a dropout rate of more than 60 per cent in an umpire or referee’s first year.

“Much of that – particularly at community sport [level] – is because of abuse, and being unsafe in a refereeing environment,” she said.

Nick Kambounias, the chairman of Football Canterbury, said violent incidents involving suspended players were rare.

Andrew Nichols, head of the Albury Wodonga Referees Association, said he had been spat on by a spectator in the past. However, incidents were not common at matches in the border region he said, estimating they could occur once every five years.

with Jackson Graham

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