Respect the Ref? Two chances!

Hands on hips. His chin lowered to his chest and back to the referee, the player refused to look at the official. Only when threatened with expulsion from the game did the player petulantly make half a turn to receive his yellow card. Having looked the referee in the eye, he was already running away by the time the official’s arm was fully outstretched.

If this was an under ten’s game in the Phoenix Park, the emotion and frustration of the player may be understandable, but when it happens at White Hart Lane and the player is Ashley Cole, any feelings of sympathy toward the player quickly dissipate.

Only four days later Liverpool’s Javier Mascherano received a second yellow card and was dismissed. His offence? Charging more than 20 yards to dispute a challenge made on one of his team-mates.

The issue of player-official respect has once again been brought to the fore.

But a trip down memory lane is not a long one to discover when this was last the favourite bar-stool topic of conversation. It is less than 10 years since Paolo Di Canio infamously pushed referee Paul Alcock to the ground after being given his marching orders. Before being banned for 11 games and fined £10,000, politicians and former players were outraged at the Italian’s behaviour. “Chuck the book at him,” said then Sports Minister, Tony Banks MP.

Such fines are nowadays not going to hurt the top professionals where many in the Premiership will be earning about three to four times that amount a week.

Players like Cole now earn more in a week than the referee earns in a year. The Chelsea player believes he is a minor celebrity – he’s not – and therefore has a right to look down his nose at anyone who dares challenge him. Likewise his team-mates.

In football, the players believe they have a God given right to challenge every decision made by the authorities, it doesn’t matter if it took place five or 50 yards away from them.

Indeed, it is not only the players who find themselves in trouble, clubs are increasingly being brought to task for not being able to control their players or 'bringing the game into disrepute'. Arsenal and Chelsea are most often at the top of the list, with the Stamford Bridge club already fined three times this year and assistant coach, Steve Clarke, also fined for abusing an official.

How often in the past number of years has a referee made a decision, or not, and is almost immediately been surrounded by a large number of players. The jostling, barracking and abuse is now seen as a valid tactic to seek to sway the decision about to be meted out. Such incidents do not take place by accident.

In the past week the Football Association (FA) launched a grass-roots campaign to recruit more referees but also improve player behaviour towards match officials. Such a campaign is not an over-night solution but must be welcomed.

Everton manager David Moyes was one of a number of Premiership managers to come out in support of the FA’s proposal to tackle the issue. But he believes respect is a two way thin: “We know they want us to give them respect. They have to give us respect also.”

However Sunderland manager, Roy Keane was highly critical of Premiership managers preaching about players respecting referees. The antagonism shown by players does not happen by mistake. And it is no co-incidence that the teams with the most vociferous managers are those with the most vocal players.

“There are a lot of hypocrites out there. The same bosses talking about players showing respect have been sent off themselves for abusing officials,” said Keane.

The Cork-man who was one of the fiercest competitors on the pitch has been one of the calmest man patrolling the touchlines and believes it is his job to set the example in the club: “I’ve made it clear to everyone here – from the academy to the first team – that a lack of respect towards referees will not be tolerated. How can the players show respect if their managers does not?”

While the FA are seeking to hire the referees at grassroots level, they would do well to include a chapter in the document for managers.

Chief Executive of the Professional Footballer’s Association, Gordon Taylor has called for an exclusion zone around referees to stop players’ dissent. “I have made it clear referees should be a no-go area. It is time managers and players did accept a responsibility because what happens at the top level happens lower down.”

While an exclusion zone is good in principle, any comments can still easily be shouted from five yards away.

If the message is to get across to the players that dissent will not be tolerated, then they must be hit where it will hurt most - on the pitch. Why not take a leaf from the rugby rule-book? Any lip or back chat – ten yards.

If Cole had 10 team-mates shouting at him to shut up as the referee moved a free-kick a further 10 yards up the pitch he might just listen. He respects them.