Murray United chairman calls for stop to anti-social behaviour after club is vandalised

Murray United's Darren Yates received a call in the early hours of Sunday morning to say the disabled toilet within the club's building had been damaged and graffiti written on the wall labelled it 'cheats'.

The club hosted Whittlesea Ranges in junior NPL fixtures on Saturday and it is believed that is when the vandalism and graffiti took place.

A week earlier, Yates said the club experienced its worst case of verbal abuse from opposition spectators towards the referee in the under-14 game.

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He's adamant the current cycle needs to be broken to stop the damage to the sport.

"A gentle 'respect the game' campaign from FV (Football Victoria) to club presidents appears to be as far FV has gone as a governing body to ever deal with this issue which is simply unacceptable," Yates said.

"The current predicament that the sport is in will not be solved with soft campaigns."

Yates suggested junior NPL games should be abandoned and points awarded to the non-offending club if no improvement is made.

"Referees need to be able to approach a club marshall during a match and provide a warning for the behavior to be corrected," he said.

"Games have become highly-charged, there needs to be a fourth official appointed who has the role of speaking to the offending club's marshall.

"It seems the change in competition structure has led to an escalation in anti-social behavior from spectators and the problems we are experiencing are mostly relating to spectators rather than players."

Yates said the behaviour had been consistent at home matches with the perception Albury-Wodonga referees "cheat" in favour of the club.

"Our local referees need protection before there are none left to officiate matches," he said.

Whittlesea Ranges secretary Sergio Costanzo doesn't condone the behaviour but felt it was unfair to point blame at one of his teams given the damage wasn't done to the changerooms.

"It's a big statement to make, it could have been anybody. It could have been a frustrated supporter or happened the week before," Costanzo said.

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