GRAVESEND Football League referees' secretary Barry Fissenden has conceded defeat in a fight to win respect for match officials and announced his resignation.

After four years in the job, he will stand down in frustration at the end of the season, claiming he was not getting anywhere in trying to persuade junior football clubs to cut the abuse hurled at referees.

He said: "I’ve decided to step down because I feel that I’ve been banging my head against a brick wall. I’ve warned clubs that we are suffering from a shortage of referees and unless they were treated better, then the problem would become acute.

"I don’t think anyone has taken a blind bit of notice because we’re still plagued with the same old problems of foul and abusive language."

His decision comes in a week when it was revealed a player pulled a gun on a referee during a South London Invicta Sports League match.

At the start of the season, Mr Fissenden warned that unless players and club officials improved behaviour, the competition would face meltdown in the number of matches covered by appointed referees.

Since then, two Gravesend League matches have been abandoned because of trouble, while a further two county cup ties, involving Gravesend clubs, went the same way. So far this season, the league have been able to provide only 74 per cent cover in terms of referees.

At the weekend, only five referees were available to cover three divisions. And while 21 graduates passed out of the local branch at the start of the season, only one came the way of the Gravesend League. The rest used their new-found qualification to referee youth football.

Mr Fissenden recently went to assess a 21-year-old newcomer, for whom a bright future has been predicted. Such was the level of personal abuse aimed at him by a club official that Mr Fissenden, who has been involved in park football for 35 years, admitted that he felt sickened.

He said: "If that had happened to me at the age of 21, I would have walked away from refereeing. Fortunately this lad has vowed to continue."

In a radical proposal, he called on clubs to supply their own referees.

He explained: "It’s purely a personal opinion, but I believe the days when referees are supplied by a league are numbered. Clubs should seriously consider nominating someone to go forward, learn the laws of the game and sit a referee exam."