An amateur football referee claims he was hurt after being knocked to the ground during a game by a player who told him 'the sun was in my eyes'. Pete Carden has taken charge of more than 3,500 games across Greater Manchester in a decades-long career.
The 72-year-old former postman says he was sworn at during a game earlier this year. He claims he was then knocked to the floor by a player, suffering a torn thigh muscle. Mr Carden also says he suffered pain in his neck, chest and back.
Mr Carden, from Whitefield, Bury, says he submitted an 'extraordinary incident report' to Manchester Football Association (FA) within two days. He claims he did not hear from officials until around three months later.
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Mr Carden says he was asked to answer a series of questions about the alleged incident, but didn't hear anything back until last month. He claims he was told at a meeting the FA had missed the deadline for dealing with the alleged attack by a day-and-a-half.
Now Mr Carden says he has submitted a formal complaint to FA headquarters in London about the handling of the case locally.
The Manchester Evening News understands Manchester FA investigated the case and charged the player concerned, but that he did not respond. At that point, the matter should have been heard in the player's absence, but it wasn't and now the case is 'out of time'.
Manchester FA chief executive Colin Bridgford said: "We are in contact with Mr Carden and will continue to offer him our full support and we will work with the Football Association in respect of this matter."
Speaking about the alleged incident, Mr Carden said: "It was near the end of the game and I had given a corner and one of [the] players said 'what have you given that for?' and I said 'your defender touched it' and he said 'no he f*****g didn't'.
"He then told one of his teammates 'you're right he is s*** this referee'. I warned him time was nearly up and to calm down otherwise I would have no choice but to send him off.
"The ball was cleared from the corner to the far side of the pitch from where I was. I moved forward about five yards and was knocked to the ground. I looked up and the player was smiling and said 'the sun was in my eyes'. I was in a lot of pain in my shoulders and my back. I was lucky I didn't break anything.
"I got to my feet and thought I will just end the game. I blew, and went to the side line and spoke to the away team, but no one wanted to be a witness. I walked back to the changing room, slowly, as I was feeling sick. I didn't want go to hospital - just to sit in A&E for four hours for them to tell me go home and rest.
"I was two weeks off football because of this. I had all sorts of pain, shoulder, back, ribs. I had trouble sleeping, and had headaches. I am disappointed with the way Manchester FA have handled this. I have been with them for 36 years."
A spokesman from the FA's London HQ said: "We are offering full support to the referee both through the County FA and our National refereeing team. We are also in dialogue with Manchester FA who are in contact with the referee and we will also be speaking to the referee ourselves over the coming days to review the details."
After the M.E.N. made enquiries, the London-based FA's regional discipline manager contacted Mr Carden and invited him to an online meeting to discuss his complaint.
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