Scarborough and Darlington vow to ban fans found guilty of misogynistic abuse after sexism allegations

The National League North match, which Darlington won 5-2 at the Flamingo Land Stadium, was briefly stopped in the first half after assistant referee Emily Carney was allegedly targeted by Darlington fans.

The game was halted for a further 38 minutes in the second half amid allegations of abuse from home fans aimed at the female official. The match, which kicked off at 1pm, did not finish until around 3.40pm.

Darlington has now promised to take action against any fans found guilty of aiming abuse at the official.

A club statement said: “Darlington FC strongly condemns any sort of discriminatory behaviour at our matches, both at home and away.

“We will not tolerate or condone racist, misogynist, sexist or any other form of discriminatory behaviour whether physical or verbal. The club will work to ensure that such behaviour is met with appropriate action in whatever context it occurs.

“As a club, we apologised to the assistant during the game, and once again, we apologise to the assistant, the other match officials and to our hosts Scarborough for the misconduct of a small number of our fans.

“Discriminatory behaviour, unfortunately, is common in everyday life, but Darlington FC is absolutely determined that it will not be heard or seen at any of our matches whether it is directed at another spectator, player, volunteer, employee or match official.

“We are carrying out an investigation into the disgraceful abuse that was aimed at the assistant referee at Scarborough last Monday, and if individuals are found to have abused the assistant, then those individuals will be banned from watching Darlington FC matches and may be subject to further external action.”

A post on Scarborough Athletic’s official Twitter account during the match said: “We would like to emphasise that discriminatory language of any nature will not be tolerated.

“Please respect the match officials, players and fellow fans.”

It was later confirmed by Athletic that “a number of individuals” were ejected from the ground before the match was restarted.

In a statement the day after the match, Scarborough Athletic said that one fan was issued with an indefinite ground ban from attending matches at the Flamingo Land Stadium and that a North Yorkshire Police investigation is ongoing.

The statement continued: “Following the discriminatory abuse from both sets of supporters at Monday's home game against Darlington, we are working closely with the appropriate authorities to investigate the incidents.

“We will continue to work closely with North Yorkshire Police to ensure the safety and well-being of everyone at the ground, including the officials, teams and all staff as well as the supporters.

“We will not tolerate this kind of abuse and those not conforming to our ground rules and regulations will receive an appropriate ban.”

HerGameToo, a campaign group tackling sexist abuse in football, told the Daily Mirror in a statement: “As a campaign fighting for a positive change against sexist discrimination in football, we were delighted to see the clubs making such a powerful stance in support of the female official.

“Working with clubs to stamp out this behaviour remains a top priority and it's important that other clubs follow this example if we are to see any form of progression. We would like to thank both Darlington FC and Scarborough Athletic for their quick action following this incident.”