Waitematā FC player Raymond Kumar jailed for kicking opponent in face at match on Auckland’s North Shore

Craig KapitanSenior Multimedia Journalist·NZ Herald·19 Sep, 2026 05:00 AM5 mins to read‌Flashback to 2017: Stamping out player and sideline abuse could require a national culture shift. Sport administrators in Hawke's Bay are working to kick start at a local level.An amateur footballer who threw a coward punch at an opponent after the final whistle, then kicked the stranger in the face, breaking his jaw, is now serving a prison sentence and faces likely deportation. “You go from no prior convictions to this,” Judge Hermann Retzlaff noted this week as