A former Welsh football referee has said the abuse he received on the job made him “question if it was worth it”.

Sean Regan, who spent six months in the profession before quitting, said there was “a real culture problem”.

The 40-year-old added: “I don’t think we can be proud to be involved in football.”

It comes as a committee of grassroots referees have refused to officiate games this weekend and two leagues in Cardiff have postponed matches in solidarity with them.

Cardiff Combination League and Lazarou Cardiff Sunday League have agreed to postpone their games, while Cardiff and District league have left the decision on whether to play up to individual teams.

Mr Regan, who was a sports lecturer and a football coach before pivoting to refereeing, said he initially thought it would be a good opportunity.

But the “atrocious” behaviour of players towards him brought him to breaking point.

“It didn’t surprise me because the coaching staff had very poor behaviour, towards their own players, officials and the opposition,” he said.

“In one match, one of their lads came up to me and said ‘if you keep calling fouls, he [teammate] is going to smack you’.

“It just made me think ‘if somebody hit me what am I supposed to do?’”

Mr Regan said although he enjoyed officiating, he did not want to feel like he was in a “fight or flight position”.

“I don’t regret leaving because it was the right decision, but I regret feeling like I had to,” he said.

The referees strike will impact matches in the three leagues across 2 and 3 November.

Despite the knock-on effect on matches getting played, many players have also supported the cause.

Evan Emer, a player for CPD Treganna – a team that plays in the Cardiff Combination league – said players were “obviously frustrated”, but added: “If the health and safety of the referees is being challenged and if they don’t feel safe doing their job it is difficult to contest.

“Frankly, I’m not surprised that it’s come to this.”

Other players were not sure the strike would make a difference.

Cobi Flowers of Cardiff Sparta – a team in the Cardiff and District league – said change needed to “come from above”.

Both Cardiff Combination and Lazarou Sunday League have postponed all fixtures this weekend in support of the referees, but some Cardiff and District league games are still going ahead.

The Lazarou League said it would “support the stance by the Referee Society”, while the Cardiff Combination Football League (CCFL) said it did “not condone either violence toward or, abuse of referees” but wanted to give all referees the choice on whether or not to participate in the action.

Swansea City and Wales midfielder Ollie Cooper is facing three months out because of a stress fracture in his foot.

Cooper has been a regular for Swansea this season and has also made an impression in Craig Bellamy’s new-look Wales side.

But the 24-year-old will be sidelined until 2025 after a scan revealed the injury issue.

Cooper will miss Wales’ Nations League games against Turkey and Iceland this month, while he will be absent for a significant chunk of the Championship season.

The loss of Cooper is a heavy blow for Swansea, given that he has returned to form under Luke Williams this season having struggled at times during the last campaign.

It is a second injury setback in a fortnight for head coach Williams, who saw South Korea international Eom Ji-Sung ruled out for six weeks with a knee problem last month.

Cooper had played in all 12 Swansea league games this season before being ruled out of this weekend’s trip to Oxford United.

The Swansea academy product has also featured in all four of Bellamy’s Wales games so far.

Sebastian Vettel has tipped Max Verstappen to beat Lando Norris to the Formula 1 title this year, despite his car not being the fastest.

Verstappen is facing tremendous pressure to hold on to his world championship advantage, with Red Bull having been out developed over the 2024 season by main rivals McLaren and Ferrari.

Although the Dutchman holds a 47-points advantage in the drivers’ standings ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix sprint, he knows that Norris has been chipping away at him since the summer break – and he could lose a lot of ground at Interlagos if McLaren is as quick as it has looked so far.

But despite the relative pace of the Red Bull and the McLaren, former Red Bull driver Vettel thinks that Verstappen is the one that still holds the advantage right now.

He thinks a combination of Verstappen’s driving confidence, plus Norris facing a renewed challenge from Ferrari, could be enough to prove decisive in how the drivers’ battle unfolds.

Speaking to Sky Germany, he said: “As much as I’d like us all to have a really exciting race right to the end, I think Max is now so hardened, so confident in his driving … we rarely see any mistakes from him, from his side.

“Even if his car is perhaps no longer quite as strong as it was at the start of the year, I still see him as the favourite. I think he’s still strong enough to always score enough points. And Lando is no longer in a position where he can win every race so easily.

“So, I would say that the role of favourite is clear – and lies with Max. But of course, as an independent spectator, I also hope that it will be even closer.”

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images

The Norris/Verstappen battle has become more intense in recent races, with the pair having controversial clashes at both the United States and Mexico Grands Prix.

And while Verstappen’s willingness to take things to the edge in his battle with Norris have left some suggesting the British drivers needs to get his elbows out more, McLaren says it does not want its driver to change his approach.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, said: “I think Lando is coping with this situation of being in the fight for the championship in a way that we are enjoying, first of all, I would say. He’s now a very mature driver.

“The race craft keeps improving all the time. The attitude, the learning from every situation, which we can appreciate almost on a race-by-race timescale. I think Lando is definitely now a mature driver to succeed in this kind of fight, which is a fight against one of the best drivers, I think, in the history of Formula 1.

“We just keep telling Lando all the time: keep doing what we are doing, let’s keep improving all the time, let’s become the best version of ourselves, race after race.”

MAX VERSTAPPEN and Kelly Piquet celebrated four years together after packing on the PDA at the US Grand Prix.

The model, 35, has been dating three-time F1 world champion Verstappen, 27, since 2020.

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The two were pictured sharing a passionate kiss in Texas after the Dutch champion came third.

And Kelly took to Instagram to celebrate their anniversary as she posted a bikini picture next to Verstappen, who also soaked in the sun.

The Brazilian is the daughter of three-time F1 champ Nelson.

Although she was born in Germany to her Brazilian dad and Dutch mum Sylvia, Kelly spent much of her childhood in France.

And Verstappen is not the only racer she has dated having been in a relationship with Russian Daniil Kvyat.

The pair began dating in January 2017 and have a daughter together, Penelope, months before they split up in December 2019.

And around a year later, Verstappen entered into a relationship with Kelly, going Instagram official in January 2021.

Ironically, Verstappen actually replaced Kvyat at Red Bull in the second half of the 2016 F1 season.

The reigning champ stands atop of the 2024 standings with Britain’s Lando Norris trailing in second.

And in a boost to Norris, rival Verstappen will take a five-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race in Brazil.

The penalty comes after Red Bull put a new engine in Verstappen’s RB20 with four races remaining.

Verstappen’s grid penalty will boost Norris’ hopes of reducing the Dutchman’s 47-point lead in the Drivers’ Championship.

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Francesco Bagnaia has admitted he will need help from other riders to have any chance of winning the MotoGP world championship following his sprint crash on Saturday.

Falling out of the race on lap three while his title rival Jorge Martin went on to win meant Bagnaia’s points deficit grew from 17 to 29 points ahead of Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix.

This in turn puts Pramac Ducati rider Martin in a mathematical position to wrap up the title on Sunday, with one round still remaining.

The deficit is now such that Bagnaia concedes winning tomorrow’s race will not be enough if Martin simply follows him home second.

Although he would still theoretically be alive in the championship heading to the finale in that scenario, the factory Ducati rider knows he now needs other riders to take points off the Spaniard to have a realistic chance at the last round.

“Giving my maximum and winning the race will not be enough,” said Bagnaia. “So we will need something more.”

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing, Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

While a zero-score for Martin would be the ideal scenario for the Italian, the next-best thing would be for the likes of Marc Marquez (Gresini Ducati) and Enea Bastianini (factory Ducati) – who followed Martin home in the sprint – to take some points off the Spaniard on Sunday.

“Tomorrow I really hope Marc and Enea will find something to be close to us. [But the worst] case for Jorge [if nothing changes] is that he finishes second because we don’t have any rivals.

“But I will go like always tomorrow, I will try to win.”

After the sprint, Bagnaia also explained that he had not taken any additional risks heading into the tricky Turn 9 on the lap he fell.

The left-hander has caught out a number of riders so far on the Sepang weekend.

“As soon as I saw that Jorge started better, I waited and then I saw that the pace wasn’t that fast. So I thought, ‘okay, I will overtake, I will have a chance in the next laps’.

“On the first lap I was a bit too aggressive in that corner. I had a lot of movement from the front – and I didn’t crash.

“[Then] I said ‘okay, I will enter more calmly’. I was sure that the risk I was taking wasn’t over the limit. I was quite confident.

“I entered the corner a bit slower but I touched the bump at the apex and I lost the front.

“I don’t know how many laps I’ve done this weekend and in the past, and I’ve touched the bump many, many times without crashing. There is always a first time. It wasn’t the [ideal] moment but honestly, it’s something that can happen.

“It’s not the first time it has happened this season that I’ve told myself I will brake a bit [earlier] not to take any risk and I’ve crashed.”