Youth team footballers refused to budge for 15 minutes after being ordered off BAA Field as they were about to start the second half of an Under-18 League game last night.

Furious parents said the youngsters had been treated disrespectfully after they were cleared to make way for a Women’s League match that was scheduled to follow.

The rescheduled youth match, between teams representing Dandy Town and Kenny Thompson’s Academy, was scheduled to start at 5.30 p.m. — but kicked off 50 minutes late after the match officials failed to show. After a hard-fought but goal-less first half, the players had come out ready to start the second period. But they were told to leave the field by the referee for the women’s match between Somerset Hurricanes and Prospect. A 9 p.m. Premier Division match between Somerset Trojans and St. David’s Warriors was due to follow the women’s game.

The youngsters, determined to finish their match, refused to move, but after efforts to stage a sit-in fizzled out, they finally yielded.

“The children should have been shown some respect and allowed to finish their game,” said Carlene Darrell, mother of Academy player Tahj Bell.

“How can we tell our children to show others respect when they are shown such disrespect?”

Academy player Khimo Harrison, 16, said: “They’ve been rescheduling our games for about five weeks and we haven’t played for a long time, so we just wanted to finish our game.”

Another angry parent of a player, Terry Fray, said: “This is Bermuda’s football future. They played a great first half and then they were not allowed to finish their match. This is discouraging for our young people.”