Tribute football game in Belfast tonight to popular referee Keith Kennedy, who died this year aged just 33

Keith died while in Colombia in September, and this evening his colleagues from Ulster Bank will take on a squad of referees in a game raising money for the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust, which helped bring him back home from South America.

Organiser Tracy Kelly said the people who set up the match wanted to bring something good out of the tragedy.

"Obviously Keith’s family have been really going through it over the past months, but the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust was really there for them in their hour of need,” she stated.

"We want this to make a difference, and it also brings together Keith’s colleagues from the bank with the sport he was so dedicated to.

"There’s a lot of love for him in the football world, as was seen from the huge outpouring of tributes and messages from clubs all over the country when he passed. He was more than an ordinary referee.”

The event starts at 5.30pm in the city’s Seaview stadium on Shore Road, with kick-off at 6pm. Donations can be made at the match, or via a Justgiving fundraiser.