A Bexley boys' football team has introduced a "behaviour manager" to deal with unruly parents after one of its coaches was beaten up on the touchline.
Stewart Collins, a manager at Danson Sports FC, was left with a broken nose, two black eyes and cuts to his head after he confronted Martin Ogazi, of Greenhaven Drive, Thamesmead, during a junior league match for the under-9s.
Mr Collins, of Mcleod Road, Abbey Wood, believed Ogazi, 39, was encouraging his son to hurt the opposing players.
The 41-year-old told News Shopper: "Martin Ogazi was standing on the other side of the pitch and was pretty well enticing his son to hurt my players.
"His son and one of my players were involved in a tackle and my team was given a free-kick.
"He said 'give him more of that'.
"It wasn't a nice thing to hear him tell his son to hurt my players so I went round the pitch and asked him politely to calm himself down.
"He said something to me that I couldn't understand and he pushed me in the chest and just started punching me.
"My wife and sister came over and tried to pull him off me.
"A manager from a team playing on the opposite pitch saw what was happening and came over and he got set upon too."
Martin Ogazi
The scuffle broke out on March 23 last year as Mr Collins' side played Eversley United at the Hall Place recreation ground in Bexleyheath.
Mr Collins added: "People realised what was happening and pulled him off and led him away to restrain him until police came.
"I've been involved in football for three years and I know people who have been involved for much longer, and none of us have seen anything like it.
"It's not what you expect to happen at a children's game at 10am on a Sunday."
Mr Collins’ team has now introduced a "behaviour manager" in an effort to stop parents sparking pitchside brawls.
He said: "At the start of this season, we took the step of having one of the members of the committee become a behaviour manager.
"He is the man who will deal with and take appropriate action against anyone who doesn't follow the club's ethos of discipline."
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At the Old Bailey on Friday, Ogazi was given a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, after being found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and assault by beating.
Prosecutor Avantika Prakash told the court the attack was "vicious and unprovoked", with Ogazi the undoubted aggressor.
Ogazi told police Mr Collins had been the aggressor and he had acted in self-defence.
Ogazi was also accused of attacking Mr Collins' wife Claire, 38, and sister Tracey, 43, when they tried to intervene, but was cleared.
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