By Steve Bargeton, political editor

AN MSPs’ charity football match ended in chaos at the weekend when the referee was forced to abandon the match amid ugly scenes.

TV football pundit Chick Young had to be carried off injured in the first half and the game was abandoned 10 minutes into the second half when a melee ensued after the politicians scored their sixth goal.

Mr Young last night claimed the MSPs behaved like a “team of thugs” and were “an absolute disgrace.”

The HBOS-sponsored match took place between MSPs and sports journalists at Lesser Hampden last Sunday and the MSPs’ team—which included former Labour government ministers Andy Kerr and Frank McAveety and the SNP’s Jamie Hepburn—was leading 6-2 when the match was abandoned.

It is understood this came about after players from both sides squared up and started pushing each other in the chest.

Labour’s Ken Macintosh, one of the organisers of the MSPs’ side, said both teams accepted the decision to call proceedings to a halt.

One of the flashpoints saw broadcaster Young injured in a tackle involving Mid Scotland and Fife MSP John Park.

Mr Young told BBC Radio Scotland’s Sportsound last night “This wasn’t any joke on Sunday, these people were an absolute disgrace.

“The attitude towards the referee, the language that was used by the politicians on the occasion, was totally out of order.

“I honestly thought my ankle was broken. It’s not, but it’s pretty bad, and I had to abandon a day’s charity golf yesterday which broke my heart as well.”

Mr Park claimed his tackle on the broadcaster was an accident and he immediately apologised.

He told the radio show, “It was an accident, it was a mis-timed tackle on Chick and I put my hand up straight away and apologised to him.”

When asked how Mr Young responded, Mr Park replied, “He was OK, yeah.”

But the BBC football journalist reacted furiously to the MSP’s account, saying, “I have absolutely no idea where he was on Sunday morning because he certainly wasn’t at the match.

“He did attempt to apologise to me and I refused to accept the apology, so for him to say tonight that I was fine about it is absolute nonsense.”

Mr Young added, “What worries me most of all, these are the people who are in charge of running the country.”

Last night Mr Park, admitted he had left the park after a “clumsy” tackle on Mr Young but denied he had been sent off.

“The ref said it was a bad tackle and I had better get off to calm down a bit. I said ‘Fine, no problem’. It was more of a substitution as far as I was concerned.”

Mr Park said that later, in the changing room, he was told that the game had been abandoned.

“I happened to have made a tackle that was a bit clumsy. It was unfortunate it all ended up like that.”

Mr Macintosh said, “Normally, it’s our football that embarrasses, not our behaviour,” he said. “But in this case, it wasn’t a terrific display.

“We’re looking for a chance to redeem ourselves and show that we play football in the right spirit in the near future.”