WORSBROUGH Bridge FC chairman Mark Booth admits he is happy the West Riding FA has proven an incident of racist abuse took place against their captain earlier this season – but believes these sort of incidents need to be stamped out of the game.
The team pulled out of their game against Club Thorne Colliery after 95 minutes following a racist comment towards their captain Juninho Blake last month.
The incident was subsequently investigated by the Northern Counties East League and the West Riding FA, who on Monday sided with the Worsbrough club.
Mark told the Chronicle: ““It was an unpleasant hearing for all involved but the right decision has been made.
“It’s the right message that’s been sent out – if you racially abuse someone on a football pitch then you’re going to be dealt with.”
Mark admits that he knew something had happened when watching from the stands due to Juninho’s reaction – and says their decision to call off the game in the dying moments has now been justified.
“He’s fine and he’s a resilient lad,” he said.
“You get to know players, know what they’re like.
“When the incident happened you could tell something had been said by his reaction.
“Juninho is the type of player you could kick six feet in the air and he wouldn’t react.
“I was talking to him and he’s happy that the right outcome has happened.
“And it justifies the stance that we took as a club on that day.”
An alleged assault took place whilst in the stands during their 4-0 loss at home to Horbury last Wednesday, with Mark hoping the group can now focus on the football rather than being distracted by off-the-field incidents.
He added: “The police are now involved. We’ll take steps to make sure that the person receives an appropriate ban.
“It’s disappointing because we’ve worked so hard to build up our fanbase over the years.
“It’s another distraction off the pitch that I don’t need to be dealing with. The players and management had had to really concentrate on getting the results recently.
“Now we have these two incidents out of the way we can focus on playing our football for the rest of the season.”
