Two National League North clubs have been slapped with £1,500 fines by the FA for sexist abuse aimed at an assistant referee, reducing her to tears..JPG)
Scarborough, where Hereford visited in August 2022, are one of two clubs fined by the FA
Scarborough's home tie against Darlington, which the visitors won 5-2, on January 2 was marred by poor behaviour from supporters, with the game delayed by some 40 minutes as the assistant referee was targeted by the vile abuse.
Darlington and Scarborough both admitted to not ensuring spectators and/or supporters (and anyone purporting to be its supporters or followers) conducted themselves in an orderly fashion and refrained from improper, violent, threatening, abusive, indecent, insulting and/or provocative words and/or behaviour.
In addition, the FA alleged the words and/or behaviour made reference to gender at the Flamingo Land Stadium.
The FA report said from around the third minute of the match, the female assistant referee was targeted with sexist verbal abuse from "multiple" Darlington fans.
Comments included “sl*g”, “grow a pair” and “can I have a sh*g", the report said. She later told the referee it was "relentless" and was crying.
Around the seventh minute, she called the referee Dean Watson to report the comments, including “get your t*ts out for the lads”.
Later, objects including pies and burgers were thrown onto the pitch, but the FA said it seemed an operational decision was made (based on police advice) by hosts Scarborough not to eject identified supporters due to "a perceived risk that it may inflame the situation".
But despite announcements to supporters, the abuse continued and the referee took the players off the pitch, following protocol.
After supporters were ejected, the match got back underway 40 minutes later, the recently-published report of the June 19 hearing said.
While the FA said it was an away match for Darlington, the club appeared not to have specifically considered misogynistic factors in its risk assessment as to their supporters as they had not faced such a scenario before.
But the FA said this was not a reasonable approach for Darlington to have adopted. By its very nature, a risk assessment will need to consider proactively all reasonable eventualities including such events as occurred at the match.
Darlington deserved credit for their social media posts condemning the sexist abuse and reminding supporters of their responsibilities. Operational decisions were made by Scarborough.
Darlington have already banned one fan, but have not yet identified a second who was kicked out the ground.
One Scarborough fan was also involved, the FA said, and he has been handed an indefinite ban.
It said the club had taken some proactive steps ahead of the match.
But the report said there was a lack of supportive documentation to evaluate properly the due diligence carried out by the club before the match.
The club did not provide a stewards' briefing document, formal pre-match risk assessment, safety officer’s decision log, security and steward deployment plan or any formal contingency plans in the event discriminatory chanting to the commission.
There was also insufficient CCTV.
Scarborough were given credit for their social media posts and PA announcements though.
Both teams were fined £1,500. Two-thirds is payable immediately, with the remainder only payable if the clubs are found to have breached FA rules again before June 19, 2024.
Actions plans have also been drawn up for both clubs to stop any such incidents happening again.