Small scuffles and the odd ‘fight’ on football pitches have been part of the game since anyone can remember.

Games get halted and abandoned for all sorts of reasons.

This month though one Lancashire Asian team was at the centre of a big brawl involving up to 40 players.

Over the years there have various incidents we have reported where a game involving Asians has had to be abandoned.

Some of these have been due to teams themselves causing problems. Some of these have been due to racist incidents on and off the pitch. In this case is seems racism was not a factor.

But if you have run an Asian football team there is a feeling that clubs tend to be a little more animated when they play you.

Asian football teams do not actually want special treatment. They never have. But what they do want is when incidents do occur that clubs are punished accordingly as they themselves have been in past.

In the nineties when you played for an Asian football team it was a battle from the very beginning. In the Eighties the feeling was you didn’t belong on a football pitch.

Ask those who played in the Seventies and they will have a completely different story to tell!

But some of these people who played through that era tend to share one thought. The opposition hated losing to Asian teams. If you play fair and win you will do more for your reputation than if you lower yourself to the level of the opposition.

One of the most frustrating things some clubs have complained about it how opposition teams tend to have an issue when an Asian is refereeing.

Asian referees will get more criticism when they are refereeing Asian teams. It is a tough for the referee and he should not be accused of any biased due to the colour of his skin.

Do Asian teams make an issue of the referee when the referee isn’t Asian? Hardly.

On the whole, local football in the North West for Asian clubs and players has changed.

Leagues are better managed, more in tune with national rules and regulations and many league officials will go out of their way to watch games to ensure they better understanding at what is going on the side of the pitch.

Most clubs have a mutual respect for Asian teams and realise that sport cuts across all boundaries.

Yet, there will always be incidents that bring the game into disrepute.

It is how well players react to them that is the difference between winners and losers.