A Montreal coach has resigned and an investigation has been launched after a wild brawl broke out between players and spectators during a junior football game in Hamilton last weekend.

A three-minute video of the fight recorded by a local television crew has gone viral on the internet, and shows about a dozen players from Montreal’s St. Leonard Cougars football team punching, shoving, and kicking fans in the stands at Ivor Wynne Stadium.

At one point a Cougars player uses an empty milk crate to clock a fan over the head. One player violently pulls a spectator down several bleachers, and another player uses his arm to grab a fan around the neck in a choke hold.

By Thursday night the video had well over 200,000 views on YouTube.

At the end of the video a referee and some fans are seen tending to an injured spectator.

The incident prompted Jeffrey Rached, the team’s head coach to step down, Tony Iadeluca, president of the Cougars organization said Thursday night in a telephone interview from Montreal.

The team was playing the Hamilton Hurricanes in the semi-final of the Ontario Football Conference, and the Cougars lost by a score of 20-9. The melee broke out with just seconds left in the match.

Iadeluca said the fight broke out after fans of the home team Hurricanes hurled racist insults, along with bottles and cans at Cougars players. The spectators were seated behind the Cougars bench when the incidents occurred.

The fight began during the final play of the game when a fan threw a can of beer and hit a player in the back. That caused several Cougars to walk up into the stands and fight.

Iadeluca wasn’t present at the game, but was told by his staff who were that insults from fans were based on race and the fact the team is from Quebec. Fans also spat at his players, he said.

Iadeluca called the incident an embarrassment for the team, the football conference, and junior football as a whole.

Football Canada, the national governing body of amateur football in Canada, in conjunction with its members, the Ontario Football Alliance and Football Quebec, is currently conducting a review of the events that occurred, the organization said in a statement.

The Ontario Football Conference as well as the Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL) have jurisdiction to conduct their own investigations regarding the incident and to determine whether or not disciplinary measures should be imposed.

“As the national governing body of amateur football in Canada, Football Canada reiterates its position as being completely against any expression of violence in football,’’ the organization said in a statement.

Iadeluca said some of his players will definitely face sanctions, but his club is waiting for the other football bodies to take action first.

But Iadeluca said mistakes were made by the Hurricanes in allowing its fans to sit behind his team’s bench — a contravention he said of Ontario Football Conference rules. He also claimed that when his head coach realized that fans were getting out of control before the brawl, the coach alerted referees to this, but nothing was done.

Officials from the Hurricanes could not be reached for comment Thursday night.

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Hamilton police haven’t laid any charges.