THE referee at the centre of the row about foul-mouthed footballing parents has threatened to quit over the episode.

As reported in The Daily Echo last week, Ron Fox abandoned a Tyro League under-13 cup match between Albion Boys and St Francis Knights after becoming sick of touchline abuse.

He is now furious that the Hampshire FA have ordered the game to be replayed and has accused them of sweeping a serious problem under the carpet.

Now the Daily Echo has received three separate reports of a Tyro League under-12 game being recently abandoned after the referee was allegedly abused and threatened by parents, officials and even players.

Fox is a Class One referee and has been officiating in football matches for 20 years, but says he is seriously considering packing up at the end of the season.

He believes the problem with touchline abuse in youth football has got worse and suspects the county FA have badly mishandled the entire situation.

He said: "The only other time I have ever abandoned a game in literally hundreds of matches since 1982 was when we ran out of footballs!

"I never go out to cause trouble and try to be as fair as I can, but the level of abuse I was getting from the Albion touchline was totally unacceptable."

Fox waved the match off with Albion losing 3-0, but both he and the St Francis team are now furious that the Dalton Cup match will be replayed after the Hants FA threw out the case following a hearing which Fox did not attend.

"They say they invited me, but I never heard anything," said Fox.

"Normally they send a letter with a detachable form which you fill in to say whether you will attend the hearing.

"But I did not receive anything and no one contacted me to find out what was going on when I didn't reply.

"I couldn't believe it when I heard that they had already held the hearing and thrown out the case without the main witness even being there!

"I wanted to go to the hearing and give my side of the story. They had my written report of the game, but that was clearly a complete waste of my time.

"The way this has been handled has been a disgrace. The county FA should be protecting and encouraging referees."

Hampshire FA operations manager Neil Cassar has refused to comment fully on the incident.

"Albion were found not guilty and that is the end of the matter," he said.

Tyro League referee appointments secretary Brian Butler insisted there was not a major problem with refs being abused in the youth game, pointing out that well over 1,000 games had been played this season alone without any problems.