A FOOTBALLER has been banned from playing for life after punching a referee and smashing his jaw..

Yesterday, Philip Helmrich, 20, was also ordered to pay £2,000 compensation and carry out 240 hours community service, for causing grievous bodily harm to Peter Hartley during a six- a-side match.

York magistrates were told that fighting erupted on a local school pitch after Helmrich was pulled up over a tackle in an amateur match.

Steve Ovendon, prosecuting, said that as players from opposing teams set about each other, Helmrich felled referee Hartley with "a haymaker".

And as the injured man lay on the ground with a broken jaw and fractured eye socket, he heard his attacker say: "I'm sorry ref, I didn't mean to do it."

Helmrich, of Elmfield Avenue, York, made no comment as he left court, but his solicitor, Colin Byrne, told the hearing that following a Football Association inquiry the accused had been banned from playing in any amateur or professional soccer match for life.

Mr Byrne said the accused had already been attacked by three opposing players and struck out believing he was about to be hit again.