CONCERNS have been raised after a mass brawl forced a football match to be abandoned before half-time.

An investigation has now been launched after the disorder forced the Brecon Corries home match against Cardiff side Canton Liberal FC to be abandoned on Saturday.

The game was replayed Thursday evening with free entry to the Rich Field and the Corries running out 5-1 winners. Our pictures show how the brawl started at the Rich Field after Brecon Corries player Luke Roughley was caught in a tussle with two Canton Liberal players.

After referee Nigel Jones intervened the players faced up to each other. A Canton Liberal player who’d been sent off earlier in the mach returned to the field having already changed from his playing strip. A Brecon Corries substitute also entered the playing area.

The abandonment has prompted a senior football official to voice his fears for the future of the once beautiful game in Wales. The warning comes while the Welsh national team are ranked among the world’s best, having reached the semi-finals of the 2016 European Championships, and with European club football’s showpiece Champions League Final to be staged in Cardiff next month.

Two players, one from each team had been shown red cards, before the tussle that sparked the mass brawl just before half time at the Rich Field in the South Wales Alliance League Premier Division fixture which the Corries were leading by the solitary goal.

League secretary David Wilcox said: "There was a red card issued and after 41 minutes the match was abandoned because of a mass brawl between the players.

"It is very disappointing and it happens too often in football at this level.

"I’m totally concerned for the future of football in Wales. We need to recruit referees, the age of our referees is too high, and incidents like this won’t encourage them."

Brecon Corries chairman Barry Jones, who said he couldn’t comment on the incident ahead of a South Wales Football Association investigation, said the referee had told him he’d called the game off out of concern for the safety of the players.

He said: "It’s certainly something Brecon Corries are not proud of, neither are the players involved or the committee. It was not a good day for Brecon Corries and our discipline is something we’ve worked on, at least, for the past eight years since I’ve been involved in the club.

"I’ve never known a game to be called off in the 18 or 19 years I’ve been going down to watch the Corries.

"The club takes this matter very seriously."

Dean Bowden, the chairman of Canton Liberal FC, said he couldn’t comment until the disciplinary proceedings have been completed.

For more on this story see this week’s Brecon & Radnor Express - on sale now.