THE county’s Football Association has confirmed it is investigating an alleged incident of homophobic abuse, which saw a team walk off in protest.

Saturday’s game at Brasenose College Sports Ground, between Union Street FC and Donnington FC in the Oxford City Football League, was marred when Union Street players left the pitch following accusations of homophobic abuse from the Donnington side.

Union Street player Alex Pratchett was wearing a rainbow headband when it is alleged he was called a ‘f*****g poof’.

An Oxfordshire FA spokesperson said it is pursuing an investigation.

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Joel Atkin, who was Union Street captain for the game, said: “Lots of tackles were going in, which were putting our players at risk.

“One of our players went off after taking an elbow to the back of the head, and there were plenty of studs up tackles.

“Football is a contact sport and we accept we can get hurt on the football pitch.

“I’d subbed myself and given the captain’s armband to Alex, so was stood on the side of the pitch when Alex said someone had said to him ‘why don’t you take that off you ‘f*****g poof’ regarding his rainbow headband.

“We don’t condone swearing, but Alex swore at the referee and got a red card while pointing out the abuse.

“It was at this juncture that the team walked off.

“Our values are love, peace and freedom, and we support the rainbow laces campaign – we can’t let abuse of this nature go by.

“I’ve never heard abuse like that and naively, I thought that would never happen.”

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Aiden Canaday, Union Street’s club secretary, added: “It was a very strange day, the game was quite an aggressive one with two-footed challenges and elbows going in.

“In the second half, I spoke to the referee and said the players were afraid and I tried speaking to the opposition players.

“Alex was wearing a rainbow headband, and one of the players said ‘why don’t you take that off you f*****g poof’.

“He led the players off – as a group, a lot of us wear rainbow laces to support the LGBTQ community.

“We’ve played at this level for a long time but we’ve not experienced anything like this.

“We’ve had a lot support on Twitter, which is very humbling.”

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In a statement, Oxfordshire FA outlined the process by which allegations are investigated.

A spokesperson said: “The Oxfordshire FA became aware over the weekend of an adult local fixture where one team walked off the pitch following alleged language of an homophobic nature.

“To start the investigation, we have contacted the alleged victims club for information.

“Our role now is to pursue the investigation and collate the evidence before consideration is given to any appropriate charge.

“The evidence and proposed charge is shared with the Football Association at Wembley who then take on the hearing process.

“Any hearing such as this will be considered by a national panel of three trained individuals from around the country.

“The outcome is then reported back to the clubs and the minutes of the hearing are published on the Oxfordshire website.

“The Oxfordshire FA doesn’t condone any discriminatory language or behaviour, especially if in a football environment, and will continue to take action against proven offenders whether a club and/or individual(s).

“Until the final outcome of this incident we are not entering into further communication as we focus our attention now on the investigation.”

Donnington FC has been approached for a comment.

In a thread of tweets replying to Union Street, Jerome McCalmon, who is believed to be the Donnington captain, said: “As captain of Donnington FC, in response to the allegations of homophobic comments or comment made against us, we strongly deny the alleged comment.

“We would also like to say we don’t accept any discrimination of any kind.

“We would also like to point out the player in question was sent off for foul and abusive language, not for complaining of an alleged homophobic comment as claimed.

“We find these allegations hurtful and would like to remind you that by law we are innocent until proven guilty.

“We were 8-1 up at the time with 15 minutes to go which could explain the player in question reaction to being sent off to make these outlandish, outrageous, hurtful allegations.

“We will not make further comment on the matter and would like to move on.”

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