Queanbeyan City FC deducted 24 points for spectators referee abuse in NPL2

Supporters were found to have made threats to the referee, used discriminatory, threatening and abusive language, brought the game into disrepute and shown physical or aggressive behaviour towards them in the side's 2-0 loss against the O'Connor Knights on July 10.

The club was subsequently fined $1000, docked 24 competition points from its NPL2 side, ordered to prepare a risk assessment management plan, given a formal warning and ordered to communicate the guilty verdict and sanctions to its spectators via social media.

Such was the severity of the points penalty, preseason favourites Queanbeyan now have no chance of being promoted to the top league next season.

The disciplinary board, which makes decision independently of Capital Football, handed down its preliminary findings on August 6 before it handed over its full findings to the club on Thursday.

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Capital Football chief executive officer Phil Brown confirmed those responsible for the abuse hurled at the referee were spectators.

"It is about a referee and something that shouldn't be part of the game, we support the strong stance that the disciplinary committee has taken," he said.

"It's absolutely disappointing and hopefully it sends a very clear message that it's not acceptable and shouldn't be part of the game."

Two spectators from the club were also handed individual fines, amounting to $1100, for their part and banned for one year, and the other, until the end of the 2022 season.

It comes off the back of other incidents involving abuse and physical altercations between players in the NPL competition.

In response, Capital Football launched a RESPECT campaign in June to address it.

Queanbeyan president Zoran Duckinoski said the club accepted responsibility for the spectators conduct but their NPL2 side had the best disciplinary record in the league and should not be punished.

"Every spectator, every individual that is acting badly, we are disapproving, we're not accepting of it," he said.

"We are looking at ways to stop this by introducing measures to be agreed on and to be implemented as necessary in the coming weeks."

The club is looking at addressing the issue of abusive spectators by implementing terms and conditions on tickets - so they can be ejected easily from High Street if they do abuse referees - video/audio monitoring of the games and crowd, and designated areas for fans of each side to sit.

Duckinoski said there were misbehaving spectators across the ACT and many clubs struggled to deal with it, but they hoped to lead the way in addressing it.

The club's president said the main reason clubs across Canberra struggled to manage it was because the club's vested officials on game day were not security guards and were volunteers trying to do their best.

"Terms and conditions on a ticket, that has not happened before in our area, in our competition, and that's why we're going to be leading the way," he said.

"It's a very, very extremely hard and complex task that is expected for the host club, mainly to eliminate it.

"So why are we accepting the challenge? Because we want to be leading a competitive game of skilled football, and also the best discipline, and that involves the spectators."

Brown said the tribunal looked at prior offences before handing down its decision and this was not the first incident involving the club.

"The most recent outcome of the tribunal is off the back of two other tribunals, that considered similar offences where a small fine and a warning was issued, then a larger warning and now to a point where it's a large fine and the removal of competition points," he said.

"No club wants to see referee abuse, the important part is that we all accept the role that we play in creating a safe environment for all participants and do our best to call out bad behaviour when we see it, report it, and then support the disciplinary tribunal process when they do handout sanctions, and make sure that people understand there is a consequence for bad behaviour."

However, Duckinoski said those prior offences from previous years related to other ages group, and the first grade should not bear the brunt of it.

"It was a very hard week ... from Friday afternoon to Tuesday night was the hardest week for first grade," he said.

"I'm very proud that the first team on Thursday night found all the strengths, believing in the club that no matter what we will keep playing. That's what we're there for, no matter the 24 points, we will still show the best game day that we can. And I'm very proud of our first grade team."

Duckinoski said the club accepted responsibility for their spectators part in the abuse but may consider appealing the decision as their initial investigations showed spectators from outside their club were also involved.

"We take responsibility, we don't want to be taking the position and trying to blame someone else, by saying 'it wasn't us', we know the realities, we as a club are all involved in that," he said.

"If we go with the appeal, we will be asking for an extension as we have a lot of audio and video to review and we'll be putting that forward, because there's so many elements involved in that game, and only a couple of the spectators are from our club."