'Referee row' league to play on

Last Saturday's matches had to be cancelled because of the referee row

Footballers in a friendly league in Dundee will take to the pitch this weekend despite a row with the Scottish Football Association over referees.

Matches had to be cancelled last Saturday after the SFA ordered its refs not to officiate at them.

They had been overseeing the games for 15 years, but were told to stop because the league is not part of the Scottish Amateur Football Association (SAFA).

However, enough volunteer refs have now offered to help at the contest.

'Crack on'

It would have cost about £4,000 to register the teams with SAFA, which league bosses felt was too expensive.

They said the extra cash raised from games was donated to charities.

League organiser Steve McSwiggan said: "We were the only league that anyone complained about, but the SFA directive applies to all games that are not SAFA affiliated, so it's quite worrying for school leagues, Boys' Brigade, work games, charity games.

"There are lots of implications and I'm hopeful that the SFA will have seen some sense, but whether they do or not, we will be cracking on with playing.

"We love our football and anything you love you've got to put up a fight for it if people are threatening to take it away from you.

"We've felt under-threat for the last 10 days or so and we've had time to judge the feeling among the teams and it's been unanimous that we crack on and that we don't be intimidated by the SFA."