FOUL-MOUTHED footballers are to be given the red card - after a village committee banned swearing.

Referees overseeing matches on the playing fields in the village of Heighington, near Darlington, will be instructed to crack down on obscene language following the decision by the village sports field management committee.

The committee made the ruling because matches are often watched by young children.

Tens of thousands of pounds are soon to be ploughed into the village field from a Football Foundation grant.

The £42,000 is going towards an £80,000 project to improve the field and pitches and build a car park.

The work is tied in with improvements to make the road outside the village primary school safer.

At a meeting of Heighington Parish Council on Thursday, councillors voted to donate another substantial sum of cash to pay for a children's playing area on the field.

A committee of parents in the village have already raised £17,000 for the play equipment and they are waiting to find out whether a bid for £5,000 from Awards for All will be successful.

The parish council will donate either £10,000 or £15,000, depending on the outcome of the grant.

It is hoped all the work on the field, and the play equipment, will be completed and in place by April/May.