Gardai are investigating a sickening Kung Fu kick on a soccer referee in an NEFL game in Dundalk last night.
The video footage below shows the shocking incident that took place five minutes from the finish of the game between Bay Celtic and visitors BJD United from Ballyjamesduff in county Cavan,
A player from the Bay team is seen lying prone on the ground, and referee Paddy White from the Louth branch ISRS appears to signal for the physio to come on to attend to him.
Suddenly a Bay player sees something and goes sprinting towards the incident but reacts too late to prevent a BJD player running from a distance and launching an Eric Cantona Kung Fu style two footed drop kick which connects with the referee dropping him to the ground.
The attack took place just after White had sent off a FOURTH BJD player and it is believed the attacker had himself already been sent off.
It is understood the match official has suffered a broken rib in the awful attack.
A source who witnessed the incident said, ‘ The referee had just sent off a fourth BJD player for a really bad tackle when a guy who had already been sent off came running back on and launched himself at him.
‘It is fair to say the few spectators there were stunned by what had happened.’
A NEFL statement said, ‘ The NEFL committee have been made aware of the abandonment of Thursday nights division 1 league match between Bay FC and Sporting BJD after 85 minutes.
‘The scoreline was 1-0 in favour of Bay at the time.
‘Following receipt of reports on the match the NEFL committee shall conduct an investigation.’
Sporting BDJ said in a statement, “All at our club are extremely disappointed at what happened during the game and we will fully cooperate with the investigation into the violent incident.
“Action will be taken” in light of the incident.
“All at Sporting BJD FC are extremely disappointed at last night’s actions vs Bay FC.
“An investigation is underway and we will do everything in our power to cooperate [in] this matter. The club will handle this situation with the utmost seriousness and action will be taken by our club. The club will be making no further comments at this time,”
‘No arrests have been made and investigations are ongoing.’
