Her email to club members followed an open letter to clubs from Armando Gardiman, the CDSFA president, which said there had been a number of incidents of verbal abuse in both junior and senior competitions. “Derogatory conduct attacking participants and spectators upon the basis of their gender, race, culture, or religion will not be tolerated,” Mr Gardiman wrote. He also said more than 100 red cards had been issued to players after five rounds of competition: “If this trend were to continue the final number of send-offs will exceed last year’s record number.” Paul Avery, the president of the Balmain & District Football Club, said the number and severity of incidents had continued despite Mr Gardiman’s letter last month. Mr Avery said he did not support the proposed shut-down, but warned club members their actions would be under the spotlight “like never before”.

Con Christodoulou, the president of Stanmore Hawks Football Club, said referees should exert more control over the game and punish players, spectators and coaches who stepped out of line. Ground officials, coaches, managers, clubs, CDSFA and parents also had to take responsibility to stamp out bad behaviour, he said. “I think they just need to sort out the individuals who are causing the problems and deal with them,” he said. “Why punish the whole competition?” But Will Cox, the registrar of Canterbury Junior Football Club, said stopping the competition would make participants take the issue of bad behaviour seriously. “They might not like it but sometimes that’s what needs to happen to get people’s attention to the problem,” he said.

Nick Kambounias, the president of the Cooks River Titans Football Club, said he did not believe matches should be halted yet. Loading But he said he was disturbed by the unruly behaviour exhibited by players as young as 12 years old. “It’s a problem with society in general rather than just sporting fields,” he said. “We seem to be living in an era of entitlement.” Bad behaviour is rife across Sydney’s soccer pitches, with the St George Football Association issuing a public warning after parents started fighting during an under-7s game last month.

Abusive parents, players and spectators, meanwhile are blamed for a high turnover of referees in all of the football codes, with up to half quitting because of abuse. Katrina Thornley said she was concerned about the verbal abuse directed at her 16-year-old son Kian while officiating at adult soccer games. She said players and spectators would challenge decisions or hurl insults at referees who were often younger. “Quite often, they’re swearing at them and really denigrating them, calling them an f-ing idiot,” she said. Kian and his brothers - Matthew, eight, Angus, 10 and Toby, 14 - also play soccer for Hurlstone Park, and Mrs Thornley said was upset by the comments made by other parents towards their own children.