Ref row threatens friendly league

Players and managers do not want to have to pull the plug on the league

Footballers in a friendly league fear they may have to hang up their boots after the SFA ordered its referees to stop officiating at their games.

About 200 men, spread across 18 teams, play in the league which meets on a Saturday in Dundee's Riverside Park.

Scottish Football Association refs have been overseeing the matches for the past 15 years but were told to stop.

The SFA said its referees could only work with its official leagues or those affiliated with the association.

If the Dundee league joins the Scottish Amateur Football Association (SAFA) then it would be allowed to continue using the SFA refs.

However, league organisers said it would cost £4,000 to register all their teams - money that they cannot afford.

The teams already donate to charity the cash raised in fines and money left over after buying trophies.

In the past three years, they have given more than £1,500 to the Maggie's Centre and to help buy kits for local school children.

It's always retained the essence of being a fun place to have a game of football Steve McSwiggan League organiser

League organiser Steve McSwiggan is trying his hardest to keep the contest going.

He said: "It's quite sad. A lot of us put a lot of effort into it and we look forward to our football at the weekend.

"Now you're sort of stuck with this Saturday morning to fill, you know go down to the shops with the wife or something.

"It's always retained the essence of being a fun place to have a game of football.

"Somebody could have come to us and spoken to us and explained, but to actually pull the rug from us three or four days before the league is going to start just seems vindictive."

A SFA spokeswoman said: "SFA referees can only officiate at games which are part of our official leagues and part of leagues by our affiliated associations - so amateur leagues and things like that come under the Scottish Amateur Football Association.

"The SAFA got in touch with the SFA and told them that our referees had been officiating at games for this league and they shouldn't have been, so the league was informed that our refs wouldn't be able to officiate at their games."