Player gets 3 Months in Prison for Attacking Ref

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By Brendan Rogers


Wednesday January 07 2009

A SOCCER player who pleaded not guilty to head-butting a referee was sentenced to three months in jail yesterday.

Judge Geoffrey Browne branded the incident as "absolutely disgraceful" before imposing the custodial sentence on father-of-two Pearse McGinley at Roscommon District Court.

The 34-year-old, with an address at Stone Cresent, Strokestown, Co Roscommon, was found guilty of assaulting referee Eugene Deering during a soccer match on February 24, 2008.

The court heard how the Strokestown United centre-back became abusive after receiving a yellow card for a reckless tackle. He later became aggressive towards the referee, forcing Mr Deering to issue the player with a red card.

Mr Deering said the defendant "exploded into huge anger". He said Mr McGinley became abusive, pushed him with his chest and head-butted him.

Local fireman McGinley said that although he was verbally out of order, "the head-butt did not happen".

The incident previously came before a disciplinary hearing, at which Mr McGinley was banned from playing soccer for five years.

The footballer told the court that after telephoning Mr Deering to apologise for his behaviour, he felt the referee had accepted his apology.

Four of Mr McGinley's team-mates who were present on the day of the match gave evidence to the court that they did not witness the incident taking place. The manager of the opposing team, St John's Athletic, Peter Tiley, told the court that Mr McGinley and the referee were face to face with "heads touching but with no impact".

'Athlone Topic' editor Mr Deering, who has been refereeing soccer matches for over 10 years, told the court he reported the incident to gardai in Roscommon town later that evening after feeling McGinley had threatened him by saying he'd "solve it after the game".

The solicitor for the defendant, Declan O'Callaghan, said his client denied the allegation of assault, especially that of head-butting the referee.

Pearse McGinley received two months' imprisonment for assault and one month for engaging in threatening and abusive words in public. Notice of appeal was lodged.

- Brendan Rogers

If you asked me that is the right kind of punishment to get for that ..But by the looks of things he may not have done it?

it is right to clamp down on these things.
how many people have been sent off locally for similar or throwing punches. If the victim in each case had gone down the road of sueing imagine all the people who would have been in prison and not just got a couple of months ban.
There should be more life bans for behaviour like this, including player v player. there is no place in football for this kind of stuff..

It seems the only one to have seen it was the ref himself, and the other players and opposition seem to be suggesting that it was a whole lot of handbags. If he did it he deserves what he got, if it was an over reaction on behalf of the ref, then that too is wrong.

I remember a case in Limerick a good few years ago where a player actually broke the jaw of a ref during a game. And he was related to the ref...I think he got a life ban from the game, but no criminal proceedings were brought.

in the majority of cases. what the referee reports is gospel. His side will always be taken no matter how many witnesses there is.what do you think?? Referees in many cases are the antagonists and should be held responsibile too.I dont condone for a minute any attack on a referee and anyone who touches a referee should be banned. Only in extreme cases should the law be brought in.

player hitting another player should be a 12 month ban, but it has to be blatent as sometimes theres play acting. player being physically aggressive with a ref should be the same ie pushing etc. hitting a ref has to be a life ban

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Originally Posted by widow

player hitting another player should be a 12 month ban, but it has to be blatent as sometimes theres play acting. player being physically aggressive with a ref should be the same ie pushing etc. hitting a ref has to be a life ban

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in my opinion, striking a referee is unforgiveable, lifetime ban. its happened a few times down through the years in limerick.

player striking another player is different though. i've seen quiet lads, who have never lost their temper before, just flare up and strike out at a player because they've nearly had their legs broken in a tackle. there are certain players who keep doing it, notorious shall we say, those players should be banned for life in my opinion. but for the player who does it out of character a 6 month ban would suffice

I think the Jail sentance is scandelous. Okay, he used threatening and abusive behaviour, there is an alleged headbutt and the ambigious threat of sorting it out later. The only sorting that was carrried out was an apology by phone as i undersatnd.
What we don't know of course was the player a known offender (ie GBH, assult, etc), but I think it would have been mentioned in the report above if so??

In terms of the footballing punishment, 5 years seemed fair and just, after all he is 34 and the prospect of not being able to play again (which is effectively what the ban is) is just punishment, in mho.