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Football

13th Oct 2022

Ashley Williams charged by FA over alleged attack at kids football match

Callum Boyle

A video of the alleged attack has emerged

Ashley Williams has been charged by the FA for improper conduct and violent, threatening behaviour for allegedly attacking an opposition coach at a Under 12s football match.

The Daily Mail have revealed that the alleged incident took place at a fixture in Manchester in which his son was playing.

A witness claimed that Williams entered the field of play to confront the opposition coach after his son had been involved in an exchange with an opponent.

The 38-year-old is then said to have responded angrily and allegedly grappled with the man in front of his own son and wife, and refusing to let him go.

Video footage taken after the supposed altercation shows other parents dragging Williams away while he appears to grapple and try and head back towards the coach.

One said: “Williams then came on and completely lost it.

“He put a coach in a headlock. We’d never seen anything like it.”

The incident, which took place on September 18, saw the game between Corinthians and Williams’s TSC at Manchester’s Wright-Robinson College abandoned.

A spokesperson for Williams has claimed that the former Wales international was acting in self defence and had been assaulted first. He has responded to the charge and requested a personal hearing.

They said: “Ashley had been assaulted and was defending himself. We have 45 witnesses – including people associated with the two teams who were about to use the pitch – who will back up our version of events and we will defend Ashley vigorously.”

Despite the altercation, Williams has continued to work on the BBC with a spokesperson saying that it is “a personal matter for Ashley and the sport’s governing body.”