A Dutch court is on Monday to hand down a verdict against a group of teenaged boys and a father accused of kicking to death a linesman, a case that sent shockwaves through the soccer-mad Netherlands.

Amateur league linesman Richard Nieuwenhuizen, 41, was allegedly kicked several times in the head by enraged youth players shortly after a December match, in which one of his sons was playing.

He died shortly afterwards in hospital, leading to much soul-searching in the Netherlands where over a million people play amateur football every weekend.