An amateur soccer player has been banned from the game for 30 years after he head-butted a referee and knocked him unconscious.
A second player received a five-year ban for racially abusing the Scottish official during the match last month in south Belfast between two Boys Brigade Old Boys teams.
The Irish Football Association, which runs the game in Northern Ireland, is to hold talks with referees' representatives next week as part of an effort to stem violence by players against officials.
There are concerns at the falling numbers of referees which is being blamed on the abuse that many of them endure on the pitch.
One report said that as the teams left the pitch, the referee was kicked in the groin and had water thrown over him after the hotly disputed dismissal of a player for alleged foul and abusive language. However, the player at the centre of the dispute then allegedly confronted the referee in a doorway of the changing-rooms and head-butted him, breaking his nose and knocking him out for three minutes. It was claimed that the referee could have choked on his own blood were it not for the action of another player who knew first-aid.
Mr Donald Fry, honorary secretary of the Old Boys league, said the teams were leaving the pitch when one player "threw water over the referee, severely verbally abused him and racially abused him". He said the argument continued in the changing rooms. "The player stood in a doorway, put a hand on either side of it and head-butted the referee, knocking him straight across the room."
Mr Davy Malcom, of the North East Referees' Association, said there was too much violence directed against officials at all levels of the game in Northern Ireland.
"We've got to do something here," he said. "We're in serious decline. Assaults on referees is one of the barriers to recruitment and until we get on top of the whole issue we're going to continue to have falling referee numbers."
The player has been banned from the Boys Brigade League until 2020. But the County Antrim Football Association banned him from the game until 2034.