{"id":573549,"date":"2025-11-16T06:12:28","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T06:12:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/573549\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T06:12:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T06:12:28","slug":"rushden-diamonds-game-abandoned-after-sexist-abuse-of-referee-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/573549\/","title":{"rendered":"Rushden &#038; Diamonds game abandoned after &#8216;sexist&#8217; abuse of referee"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762867332_696_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/8e431f00-c26e-11f0-b750-c7e39048cbc2.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"Getty Images The lower bodies of three football match officials standing on grass. The photo is taken from behind and they are wearing black and yellow kit.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>AFC Rushden &amp; Diamonds said any supporters who witnessed the incident should contact them<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">A non-league match was abandoned after sexist abuse was allegedly aimed at a female referee, a football club has said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">AFC Rushden &amp; Diamonds said its match at Coventry Sphinx was called off at half-time after a comment from the crowd of a &#8220;sexist nature&#8221; was heard being directed at her.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The Northamptonshire side said it was &#8220;deeply concerned and disappointed&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">A spokesperson said it would &#8220;take the strongest possible action&#8221; if it established the person responsible was associated with the club.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;A comment of a sexist nature was allegedly directed toward the female match official towards the end of the first half,&#8221; said an AFC Rushden &amp; Diamonds spokesperson, in a <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AFCRD\/status\/1989751639478043125\" class=\"sc-f9178328-0 iCaRzc\">statement posted on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;Discriminatory language or actions of any kind have absolutely no place within our community club or the wider football community.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Attempts to identify the individual were unsuccessful and the matter had been reported to the &#8220;relevant authorities&#8221;, the club said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The BBC has contacted the Football Association and Coventry Sphinx for comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Speaking to the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AFCRD\/status\/1989758667160523064\" class=\"sc-f9178328-0 iCaRzc\">club&#8217;s in-house media after the match<\/a>, Diamonds first team manager Elliot Sandy said the referee stopped the match while the culprit was removed from the ground.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">He said the match resumed, but that at half-time, she told the team she did not feel comfortable continuing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;I obviously condemn what&#8217;s happened today; there&#8217;s no place for it in football and I feel really sorry for her that it has actually happened,&#8221; said Sandy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The two sides both play in the Northern Premier League Midlands Division.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Diamonds said any supporters who witnessed the incident or who had information should contact them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Images AFC Rushden &amp; Diamonds said any supporters who witnessed the incident should contact them A non-league&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,12,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-573549","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115557901860878061","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}