Football Match Erupts in Violence: Waitematā FC Player Sentenced

On a cold June afternoon at Sunnynook Park on Auckland’s North Shore, a Division 3 football match between Waitematā FC and Albany United disintegrated into violence that has now ended with a prison sentence.

What began as a routine league fixture turned ugly just after the whistle, around 3.30pm. According to an agreed summary of facts released to the Herald, Waitematā player Kumar ran up behind an Albany opponent and kicked his right foot, sending the smaller player stumbling forward. Words flew. Tempers followed.

Kumar then drove both hands into the victim’s chest, shoving him back with force. That flashpoint lit the fuse. Players from both sides piled in as a full-scale melee erupted across the pitch.

Dragged to the ground by another Albany player, Kumar briefly disappeared in the chaos. Then he got up and went hunting. Court documents say he charged at the original victim, who was standing off to the side of the brawl, and punched him in the jaw. The blow dropped the player to the turf. As he lay there, Kumar kicked him in the face while still wearing his boots.

Witnesses had to haul Kumar away.

Albany United players later said they had been warned about Waitematā before the game. One, who asked not to be named, described the opposition as “pretty scrappy” throughout a contest the referee eventually abandoned early, even before the fight exploded.

He also said the man targeted was the “smallest player on the pitch” – and that the attacker vanished almost immediately.

“Doing that and then running off, it’s just a f***ing cowardly way to do it,” he told the Herald.

Waitematā FC moved quickly. Club president Conan McKinstry said last year that Kumar was “immediately removed from the club” and confirmed the team was co-operating with police.

“He’s not welcome back at the club,” McKinstry said.

Police spent 10 weeks piecing together what happened. Kumar was arrested one year ago this week. He first faced a charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, an offence that carries a maximum of 14 years in prison. The victim left Sunnynook Park bleeding, later requiring surgery for a broken jaw and time off work to recover.

Kumar eventually admitted a lesser charge: injuring with intent to injure, which has a maximum sentence of five years.

The injured player stayed away from court for this week’s sentencing. No victim impact statement was read. The judge was told he had no interest in sitting down with Kumar at a restorative justice conference, a process where an offender can apologise face to face.

In court, Judge Retzlaff said Kumar had started to make progress. He had enrolled in a stopping violence programme and applied for a discharge without conviction. Then, last month, he unravelled.

Around 4am, after leaving a Kingsland bar, Kumar was getting a ride home with relatives when the violence flared again. As the car headed through the city, he punched a male relative sitting beside him in the back seat, court documents state. The driver pulled over. Kumar then turned on a female relative, punching her twice in the face and dragging her out of the vehicle by her hair.

When the male relative demanded to know why, Kumar hit him again. The man fell to the ground. The attack continued there. Kumar ran but was arrested a short distance away.

He initially denied assaulting his relatives. Asked about the football brawl, he claimed he had acted in self-defence.

In court, his lawyer said Kumar now felt deep shame over what he called “impulsive and violent behaviour” in both incidents, and claimed his client had no memory of why he attacked family members that night. Kumar, the court heard, was “very remorseful for the harm he’s caused”.

A short prison term was inevitable. Kumar had no suitable address for home detention, his lawyer said, and the fallout would be severe. A deportation notice had already been issued. Kumar wanted to fight it, but the court heard that would be difficult.

Judge Retzlaff imposed 18 months’ imprisonment. He told Kumar to use that time to rebuild and to try again to steer his life away from violence, even if deportation meant doing it far from his family.

“The physical harm you caused is clear,” the judge said, adding he had no doubt the first victim also suffered psychological harm. “He should have been entitled to enjoy a soccer game without this happening to him.”

The Herald’s request to photograph Kumar in the dock was refused. The judge cited the player’s lack of prior convictions, his youth and the “past experiences of trauma and violence that he himself experienced” at the hands of his father.

“You have not had a happy upbringing in certain seasons of your life,” Judge Retzlaff acknowledged.

Then came the warning that now hangs over whatever future Kumar has left in the game, and beyond it.

“You need to develop a mechanism to steer away from this violence, or it’s going to keep landing in prison.”