A SUNDAY League referee says it is the job of the clubs to stamp out the "bullying" of abusive "thugs" after he was the target of a sickening threat last weekend.

This week, the Daily Echo reported how referees are turning their back on Bournemouth's park football scene due to the stream of verbal abuse they are subjected to.

Graham Nash, a fully-trained and registered referee, experienced the problem first hand when he was told to "look after his son" after a game he officiated on Sunday.

He said: "I was refereeing a game that got quite heated at times, and had reason to talk to one player on many occasions. He became very abusive towards me so I cautioned him with a yellow card.

"At the end of the game, a fair amount of his team came to me and congratulated me on the way I handled the game, but this player just carried on arguing and trying to intimidate me.

"While walking off the field, I heard him say: "Look after your son". When I asked if he was threatening members of my family, he fronted up to me with his face only inches from mine.

"That threat, to me, was beyond what happened on the pitch. It was a case of simple bullying."

The Poole-based official believes clubs should be punished for indisciplined individuals with point deductions and fines. At the moment, only the individual is fined for a booking or sending-off.

Mr Nash said: "I feel that all clubs have a duty to stamp out players like this.

"If a team lost points or had monetary penalties imposed on them for this sort of behaviour, I genuinely believe the standard of play would improve because these thugs would not be signed by teams.

"This in turn would alleviate the situation that most Sunday leagues find themselves in with a lack of referees." Mr Nash also insists the job of the officials at grass-roots level is made much harder by the antics of the Premiership players.

He said: "When a multi-millionaire Premiership player is shown cussing and swearing at a referee, then what chance do we stand on a Saturday or Sunday with certain people who have not yet outgrown their schoolboy mentality?

"If they see Wayne Rooney screaming at the ref, we have got no hope. If they clamped down on it, then hopefully it would filter down to our level."

But despite the abuse he has received in the past, Mr Nash handed the BFA some long-term hope by stating he had no intention of letting the bullies win.

He said: "I really enjoy it and I don't really care about the abuse.

"They expect me to back down but I have had bigger idiots than them shouting at me.

"I am trying to be fair and if one person thinks I'm doing it wrong, then they should book themselves on to a course and they can take the flak at the weekends."