'Punched, strangled unconscious and had my life threatened - but I love refereeing': Portsmouth official refuses to quit after footballer gets 5-year ban for assaulting him

With wife Val almost ready to serve the Sunday roast, thankfully, on this occasion, hospital attention wasn’t required. Small blessings, having earlier that afternoon been assaulted in the line of duty. Yet again.

During more than 25 years as one of Portsmouth’s most recognisable referees, Redding has been choked unconscious, had his life threatened, been chased around the pitch, locked in a dressing room, and forced to flee in his car mid-match while still wearing football boots.

The latest incident resulted in the FA banning Mark Chukwuma for five years, having launched a shocking attack on the 61-year-old during a City of Portsmouth Sunday League Challenge Cup fixture.

Violence ignited in the September 2024 fixture after the Milton-based match official had instructed the Hatton Rovers substitute to leave the pitch and put on shin pads in their match with Wickham Dynamos.

As the situation escalated, Redding was pushed, grabbed, and then punched in the stomach by the player, with team-mates jumping in to defend the referee and restrain his assailant.

Depressingly, extreme behaviour towards match officials is gradually becoming the norm, with their numbers across the country plummeting as a consequence.

And, with a resigned shrug of the shoulders, Redding was back refereeing within a week.

‘It’s water off a duck’s back now. I’ve had worse things done to me while refereeing. It is what it is,’ he told The News.

‘I’m 61 years of age and don’t want all this hassle. I’ve quit three times, but I always come back. What else would I do on weekends? I just love refereeing. Love it.

‘I was never very good at football. I was the one who filled in every position whenever somebody didn’t turn up and was awful in every one of them. Yes, I’m that person. But I believe I am good at refereeing.

‘As soon as I go onto that pitch and blow the whistle to start the game, I have no fear. It’s just the way I am, I don’t know why, but that helps with what has happened to me in games over the years.

‘It doesn't matter how big they are or how small I am, I’m not scared of anybody. My attitude is if they’re going to hit you, they are going to hit you.

‘The player that threatens he’s going to hit you in a minute, well you know that’s not going to happen. If they’re going to punch you, it would be done in an instant. He wouldn’t give you a warning, not a chance.

‘It has become more aggressive towards referees over the years and I’m certainly not the only one who has been assaulted. Then there’s the abuse.

‘I’m partially deaf in my left ear and there was a time I’d referee in a hearing aid. I eventually stopped wearing it. You don’t want to hear everything that’s going on, with guys shouting at you on the sidelines. You just want to concentrate on the game.

‘You won’t intimidate me, though. I’m too long in the tooth for that now. I’m just continuing to do what I love.’

Last year, Redding was honoured by the Hampshire FA in their Grassroots Football Awards in recognition of 25 years of service.

Having progressed from standing in as an emergency referee for his Saturday and Sunday League clubs, he was a late starter at the age of 35 when overseeing his first match as a qualified official in 1999.

Born Adrian, yet widely known as Bunny, the nickname given to him as a child by his parents, and measuring at 5ft, he has gone on to establish himself as one of local football’s most well-known characters.

Redding added: ‘The worst thing that happened to me was at Hayling Park, about 20 years ago. It was also the first time I was seriously hurt and involved a relative of this lad who I had given a red card.

‘I awarded a penalty against this kid and cautioned him. The team subsequently missed from the spot, so he stood there clapping his hands shouting “That’s justice, that’s justice”, so I cautioned him again, this time for dissent, and he was sent off.

‘Playing for the same team was his uncle or cousin, who then decided to grab me by the throat. I was absolutely terrified. I abandoned the game, went back to the changing room and didn’t want to leave.

‘Their changing room was next door, I’d have to pass it to exit the building. This guy had just assaulted me, I didn’t know whether he was still around. Perhaps he might do something else to me? I was so scared, I admit it.

‘I decided to stay there until all the players had gone, I didn’t want to risk it. While sitting there, I rang a friend of mine - Chris - and explained what had happened. He offered to come over, but I remained until it was safe to leave.

‘The player was given a five-year ban with a review. Sure enough, after serving his suspension, the FA reviewed the case to decide whether it was okay to let him back - which they did. Then he assaulted another referee.

‘At least when you have a problem with a player in 11-a-side football, you can give a card and run away because there’s a big pitch. With five-a-side, you’re often in a cage and have nowhere to go.

‘Once I was refereeing at Goals and this player kept swearing. I told him “If you continue to swear, I’ll have no option but to send you off”. His response was “Send me off and I’m going to kill you”. So I gave him a red card.

‘He grabbed me by the throat and lifted me off the floor. I can’t remember what happened next as I found myself floppy on the floor, with players helping me up.

‘The police were called and advised me to go to QA Hospital for my throat to be checked for damage. Well, I was told by a nurse that 8-9 seconds of squeezing can make you unconscious, which is what happened to me.

‘The police cautioned him. He nearly killed me and all they did was caution him.’

Certainly Redding’s no-nonsense refereeing style has been to his detriment on occasions.

In June 2009, the Hampshire FA took action following the creation of a Facebook group titled ‘Bunny is a little Hitler’.

One of those involved became the first person in England to be fined by a county FA for improper Facebook postings, while the group’s creator was fined £125.

An additional 12 people were handed fines ranging from £15 to £75 for posting comments about the match official, with the group removed.

‘There was a comment about my family on that group, which I didn’t like, so I escalated it to the Hampshire FA,’ said Redding.

‘The truth is, I don’t care who wins or loses in matches, it makes no difference to me. I’m impartial, the same towards both teams. I once booked my son, Wayne, for showing dissent about my decisions, you can’t be biased, not even when it’s family.

‘I’ve changed as a referee. I used to caution players for dissent, but I tend not to now, instead preferring to control the situation by talking to them. It’s more about man-managing and I believe players appreciate that.

‘So many games stick in my head for the wrong reasons. There was a match at Wickham when, after the final whistle, a player began to chase me around the pitch. I don’t know what he was going to do to me, but he couldn’t catch me.

‘On another occasion, a team locked me a Bransbury Park dressing room after the game. The bolt was on the outside of the door and I had to bang and bang on it until somebody let me out.

‘At Titchfield, I once sent off a player and immediately had to run away as all his team-mates were coming for me. There were a lot of them. Thankfully, I always carry my car keys in my shorts, so I jumped into my Toyota Lexus and drove off, while still wearing my football boots.

‘The game had to be abandoned as there was no longer a referee. Instead I parked down the road, got changed and drove home. No chance was I going back.

‘On another occasion, I travelled to Gosport on a Saturday night with my wife and friends for a meal and, coming back on the Gosport ferry, one lad recognised me and threatened to beat me up. Apparently, I had once sent him off. His two mates had to hold him back, he was going to chuck me into the Solent.

‘I actually made The Daily Mirror and talkSPORT in 2009 after booking a player for farting in my face. Looking back, he should have got a red card, I was within my rights.

‘I had lined up the AFC GOP players to check their boots before kick-off against Apsley House and, as I bent down to look at Levi Foster’s boots, he passed wind. He knew what he was doing and they all laughed. It wasn’t nice. Even now people ask me about that.’

In October, an FA Disciplinary Commission held a non-personal hearing into the assault on Redding, with Chukwuma requesting matters be dealt with by way of correspondence.

The Hatton Rovers player pleaded guilty to two charges; assault on a match official and improper conduct against a match official (including abusive language/behaviour).

In the report, the commission stated: ‘It is clear to the commission that Mark Chukwuma’s behaviour at the applicable fixture is of significant concern, admitting that he charged at the match official, pushed him, tried to slap the red card out of his hand and further assaulted the match official by smacking him in the stomach. This behaviour cannot be condoned and falls well below the behaviour expected within football .’

Taking into account a clean disciplinary record over the preceding five-year period, Chukwuma was suspended from all football activities for five years, with an additional two-match ban and £25 fine.

Redding added: ‘That assault didn’t really worry me because I had the full support of everyone on that pitch. Other players looked after me, they protected me, and I appreciate that.

‘The punch didn’t hurt, it was just the shock of what he’d done, I didn’t expect it, the game wasn’t like that, a few mandatory bookings, that was all. There were only eight minutes remaining too.

‘It began when another player pointed out that he (Chukwuma) wasn't wearing shin pads. So, when the ball had gone out for a throw-in, I told him to put some on. He began walking off really slowly and, when I asked him to speed it up because we had a game to continue, he rolled on the floor, faking injury.

‘So I cautioned him for delaying a restart of the game - but he wouldn’t give me his name. Then his face changed and he became aggressive. He jumped up and ran at me, calling me all the names under the sun, so I backed off.

‘He put his hands close to my face, so I pulled out the red card and showed it to him. The player then tried smacking it out of my hand, pushed me, then grabbed me, before hitting me in the stomach, continuing to swear.

‘Thankfully the players intervened, putting themselves between us and pulling him away. In hindsight, I should have abandoned the game, but I didn't want to punish the team for one man’s actions - so the match continued.

‘It’s the first time in football where I’ve been assaulted and not been scared. That’s because I had so much protection from the other players.’

Although he devotes his time to refereeing at weekends, Redding’s full-time job is a maintenance man at five-a-side football venue Goals, in Tangier Road.

For the last 12 years, he has also worked as a Fratton Park steward on match-days, while he’s become a fixture on the route of the annual Great South Run, supervising road closures.

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This June, Redding will celebrate 26 years as a qualified referee - and he has absolutely no intention of stopping.

He said: ‘I’ll tell you now, I’ve had shockers as a referee. I’ve come off and known I have been awful. I’ve not given a goal and I’m questioning whether I should have been in a better position to have seen it. We’re all human.

‘Football is all about opinions, it’s my opinion against 22 players on the pitch and coaches on the sidelines. You are refereeing the game of football and everyone wants to have their say. But I make mistakes too, I can admit that.

‘There are times when I’ve thrown my kit into the cupboard and quit, sick of the abuse and threats. Then, as the week goes on, you think “Okay, I’ll have another game”.

‘Then my wife, Val, reminds me the dirty kit’s still in the cupboard and needs to go in the washing machine sharpish!

‘I’m still going to continue, I’ll keep refereeing for as long as I can. My body’s aching, I’m no longer very quick, and I need to have a cortisone injection in my left knee sometime this month.

‘The abuse and attacks shouldn’t happen, but I just love football - and I hate the thought of becoming another referee lost to the game.

‘I used to organise the referee appointments for the Portsmouth Sunday League and, on various occasions, I had 100 per cent of matches covered. Nowadays I’m told it is 30-40 per cent.

‘A new referee who witnessed that assault on me in September says he’s now weighing up whether he still wants to carry on. That’s the real concern, not what has happened to me.

‘We go there to help people have a game of football. Without a referee, you ‘ain’t got a game.’