THE Navua Football Association pre-season tournament turned ugly yesterday after five players were red carded for indiscipline at Vashist Muni Primary School grounds.
This includes an incident where a referee was punched by a Naitonitoni Rovers player after he received successive yellow cards for hurling abuse at the match official.
The player head-butted the Fiji Football Association referee when he was flashed the red card.
Navua reps Peni Nabete, Inoke O'Connor and Simione Damuni were also given the marching orders.
O'Connor, who plays for Combine Brothers, punched a player which resulted in his dismissal while the other two were disciplined for dangerous play.
Navua FA secretary Ashwin Chand said they would take disciplinary actions against these players.
"We once again remind the clubs affiliated with Navua Football to follow the rules and respect the decision of the match officials," Chand said.
"We will not condone such behaviours from the players. We are thankful the referee in question did not take the matter to police but we will make sure the accused player is disciplined."
The John's Electrical-sponsored knockout tournament sees 12 teams competing in two pools.
Combine Brothers, with the Chand brothers Rajneel, Vineet and Monit, along with Praneel Kumar and Iliesa Lino, leads Pool One after earlier rounds of games over the weekend. Barbarians FC look good in Pool Two.
The games continue this weekend.