Brawl ends Christian League football match

It is the squeaky clean football league set up to promote the Christian values of love, peace and understanding. Bad language leads to an automatic red card and ungentlemanly conduct, such as spitting or arguing, is frowned upon. West Midlands Christian League bosses say players should behave, both on and off the pitch, in a manner “that is morally, decently and ethically sound of action and speech, and is honouring to the name of Jesus Christ.” Set up in 1979 to offer Saturday fixtures, so ensuring churchgoing footballers did not have to miss Sunday services, the league champions “friendly competition whilst upholding Christian beliefs and ideals”. But during a game between two church sides last weekend all hell broke loose. The match between Common Ground United and Zion Athletic had to be abandoned after a brutal brawl broke out on the pitch at Churchfields playing fields, West Bromwich.



By the time the dust had settled, five Common Ground players were up on charges of distinctly un-Christian violent conduct, one of them facing an additional count of serious violent conduct. Such was the severity of the trouble that all five could now be banned for a year. Shocked league bosses say that they have never seen anything like it – and say that an influx of non-Christians into teams may be to blame. Common Ground United, whose players have been singled out as last weekend’s culprits, is linked to the Living Stones of Christ Embassy church in Perry Barr, Birmingham, which has an international congregation. The church states that it “provides a platform for young people of 13 different national backgrounds” and “is a true community team uniting all the cultures and bringing friendship, understanding and respect for each other’s background”.

Opponents Zion Athletic FC is a team based at the George Salter Collegiate Academy in West Bromwich. One of the club’s players has also been charged with misconduct after the football fracas. Common Ground founder Tony Sadla, a deacon at Living Stones of Christ Embassy church was at the game – and claims that his players, from Erdington, Handsworth, Winson Green, Smethwick and other areas, had been subjected to “provoking and badgering” before the fight. But he added: “It’s devastating and shocking, and we don’t condone this sort of behaviour. Some of the kids come to church and some of them don’t, and those involved are no longer church-going Christians. But Common Ground United got the raw end of the deal with five red cards whereas Zion Athletic seemed to be the ones who escaped.



“When a penalty was awarded to Zion, their player started smiling and laughing, and made a remark. The guy who was involved in hitting him made a remark back and smiled and laughed. From there it just kicked off. We tried to stop it and pull them apart. Some of our players have had a bad course in life. By going to church, you don’t expect it to change overnight. Sometimes they go off the rails.” Mr Sadla said the club and its players would accept whatever punishment was handed to them by the FA and league, and would seek to impose its own ban on those responsible. Zion Athletic manager Jonathan Allen said: “Neither myself nor the other manager will have been proud of what took place. We are just thankful that no-one was seriously hurt. As a manager I was pleased by my players’ controlled response to the aggressive and violent behaviour of the opposition, by not fuelling a situation that could have been far worse. Violence has no place on a football pitch and we hope that the league will do all that they can to prevent a recurrence of this incident and ensure the very good discipline we have come to enjoy each Saturday continues.”