Referee George O'Brien says he is not ready to throw in the towel just yet despite last month's ordeal with enraged Boulevard coach John Rebello at BAA Field.

Rebello was hit with both a six match ban and two years probation on Monday after the Bermuda Football Association's disciplinary committee found a charge of bringing the game into disrepute proven.

O'Brien had threatened to quit the sport after the October 12 incident in which Rebello was said to have been restrained by his players after he confronted the referee following the match and allegedly hurled verbal abuse at him, the latter matter highlighted by the BFA.

Rebello had earlier been sent off and his emotions evidently boiled over after Blazers first had two appeals for a penalty ignored and then saw Jamal Smith's equaliser for Colts stand when Boulevard players claimed the player handed the ball before ramming it past the hapless `keeper Corby Durrant. Devonshire Colts won the match 2-1.

"I can't say that I'm happy or not happy with it," said O'Brien of the disciplinary committee's findings and subsequent ruling.

"They made a decision as to how to deal with the culprit and there's nothing else that I can say or do about it."

O'Brien was adamant, though, that he was going to carry on in the middle.

"Football is my number one love after my family and there's no way that I'm going to quit - that incident won't make me quit," he said.

"It's the worse thing that could ever happen in the game but it's hard for me to make the decision to give up the sport that I love so much."

O'Brien said people needed to understand that a referee's decision, right or wrong, was final.

"Sometimes you find that the game of football is so intense people sometimes let their emotions get the better of them and that's what I think happened to John that night," he explained.

"Maybe he didn't agree with the decisions that I made but you have to remember that if an official makes a decision then you have to abide by that decision and that's the bottom line."

O'Brien acknowledged that soccer is an emotional game.

"I have given it a lot of thought and the conclusion that I have come to is that these things do happen in football," he said.

"But like I said earlier you must be able to control your emotions and not let them go all over the place because it could have been an even bigger scene at BAA Field that night."

The official said such incidents did not set a good example to players just coming into the game.

"If you see any senior players or officials carrying on in a manner like that then obviously the youngsters are going to follow suit," he said.

O'Brien, ironically a former Blazers `keeper, has been designated as the fourth official for next Monday's Martonmere Cup Final between Devonshire Colts and PHC slated for Wellington Oval.

Rebello could not be reached for comment yesterday.