A football linesman beaten and kicked by teenage players during a youth match has died.

Three players aged between 15 and 16 were arrested after Richard Nieuwenhuizen collapsed at the Dutch club Nieuw Sloten in the town of Almere on Sunday.

The 41-year-old, whose own son had been playing in the game, had left after the match and was unaware anything was wrong with him, but he then returned to the club later that night and collapsed.

He died in hospital the next day. His team, Buitenboys, has not announced the exact cause of death, but Dutch TV station RTL said he had brain damage.

“You can’t believe this could happen. That kids of 15 or 16 are playing football, you come to watch and see something like that,” said Buitenboys chairman Marcel Oost.

“He did it every week. He enjoyed doing it. He was a real football man – he was always here.”

Dutch sports minister Edith Schippers said: “It is absolutely terrible that something like this can happen on a Dutch sports field.”

Parents and other volunteers regularly referee and officiate at sports matches involving their children in the Netherlands, where youth football and hockey is popular and well-organised.

Anton Binnenmars, of the Royal Netherlands Football Association, said: “It is too crazy for words that somebody involved in a sporting hobby becomes a victim of this kind of aggression.”

Police said they would not rule out arresting more suspects.

Nieuw Sloten said in a statement on its website it has banned the players involved and pulled their team out of the league. Such incidents “do not belong on a football field”, the statement added.

The Dutch FA said all Nieuw Sloten’s matches next weekend had been cancelled at the club’s request.

The attack in Almere was even discussed at a news conference in Spain on the eve of Ajax’s Champions League match against Real Madrid.

“You can’t imagine it happening,” said Ajax coach Frank de Boer. “That boys of 15, 16 years short circuit like that. You wonder about the parenting … this is too ridiculous for words.”

The death is almost exactly a year since a Dutch amateur footballer fatally kicked a 77-year-old supporter following a match.