Liverpool FC Forum

by **KARMANI** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 2:27 pm

Take your pick what we should call this:

(1) The "Wayne Rooney" Rule?
(2) The "Roy Keane" Rule?
(3) The "Alan Smith" Rule? (see the trend?)
(4) The "Lee Bowyer" Rule?
(5) The "Paul Dickov" Rule?

or the "Too Late for Craig Bellamy" Rule?

.....

FA's red card clampdown on foul-mouthed players

Denis Campbell
Sunday March 13, 2005
The Observer

Footballers who swear at referees will be shown a red card as part of a disciplinary crackdown.

Football authorities, increasingly concerned about the image of the sport, fear that the poor behaviour of professionals is influencing amateurs to follow their bad example. From next season, players who harass, intimidate or verbally abuse a match official when challenging a decision will be sent off.

The FA and the Premier League have acted after a spate of incidents - such as Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney unleashing a stream of expletives at referee Graham Poll in a game against Arsenal - led to a torrent of anti-football criticism, most notably in last week's Observer from John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads teaching union.

Article continues
[AD]
Dunford suggested that live football should be banned on television before 9pm so that young people would not be influenced by seeing players snarling at referees. 'We don't want to see individuals, groups of players or managers in the referees' faces giving them abusive language, so from next season referees will apply the rules more strictly,' said a Football Association official.

'From August, anyone doing this will get a red card far quicker than ever. We won't tolerate this any more.'

There will not be an immediate clampdown because 'you simply can't change refereeing standards midway through a season'. Football managers and refereeing chiefs admit players have escaped punishment for behaving aggressively towards officials because the rules do not allow the showing of a yellow card as a first caution for the offence.

'Football's Law 12 says that if a referee decides someone is guilty of offensive, insulting or abusive language or gestures, the player receives a red card and referees have proved reluctant to use that power, in order not to spoil the game,' said a refereeing official.

FA chairman Geoff Thompson and chief executive Brian Barwick and Premier League officials are worried that the sport's image is being tarnished by such incidents, which are highlighted on television. They fear youngsters are castigating officials in the same vehement way and that referees are abandoning the sport in frustration at the decline in their authority.

The tougher stance will be agreed this summer by the Professional Game Match Officials, who control referees and refereeing standards in England. Managers will attend meetings about the clampdown and referees will visit clubs telling players what the change will mean.

But football is divided over the move. Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, the players' trade union, said that repeated coverage of a handful of incidents has given the public a distorted impression of how often such behaviour occurs.

'It's part of being a professional footballer that you accept the referee's decisions and keep your cool on the pitch,' he said. 'And haranguing or harassing the ref, or using insulting language, clearly isn't acceptable.

'But we should deal with this by changing the rules so a ref can hand out a yellow card for a first offence, establishing a two-yard exclusion zone around refs which players cannot enter or classing such behaviour as "ungentlemanly conduct", which is a yellow-card offence,' said Taylor.

John Scales, the former Liverpool, Tottenham and Wimbledon defender, said that action was 'long overdue' and using a sin bin for offenders - sending them off for 10 minutes to cool down - would be a better punishment.

'Giving a player a red card for this is too big a penalty,' Scales said. 'We don't want football to become a nanny state. Football is an emotive sport and there will always be players who get wound up. I'm a mild-mannered person off the pitch, but I lost it a few times during games in my career. 'Football should copy rugby's example and send a player who is abusive to a sin bin for five or 10 minutes. That would disadvantage his side, so his manager and team-mates would tell him not to behave like that again.'

by **the great one** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 2:37 pm

They won't do nothink the Fa are gutless cowards

by **115-1073096938** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 4:01 pm

Finally a change i can agree with.

The ref (as in rugby) should be treated with respect.

by **rosa** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 4:29 pm

sounds a decent idea, though players who persist should eventually be sent off or at least an enforced substitution should occur if the abusive player's team still have the option and haven't used them all

by **XSD** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 5:40 pm

I think that sin bin idea is good.

by **stmichael** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 7:35 pm

about time the fa did something to clamp down on the foul mouthed louts that are the likes of wayne rooney and danny mills.

the referees hold all the power here. send players off for swearing at them and it will soon stop believe me.

by **Smoke** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 7:44 pm

i totally support this new law however i'd much rather see players given a straight red card for diving as i feel this is having such a much more negative effect on our game. Just look at the Arsenal Bolton match pires and the rest were disgraceful

by **Ciggy** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 7:52 pm

Smoke wrote:i totally support this new law however i'd much rather see players given a straight red card for diving as i feel this is having such a much more negative effect on our game. Just look at the Arsenal Bolton match pires and the rest were disgraceful

Well Baros would be sent off all the time then wouldnt he

by **zarababe** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 8:22 pm

ooooh Lynds.. that's hilarious

by **kazza** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 10:38 pm

I hope the ref does not know spanish for "your a w@nker"

by **KARMANI** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 11:04 pm

http://www.punchbaby.com/media/gitfakt/clips/funny/ArbitoGay.wmv

by **KennyisGod....still** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 11:38 am

I never understood how takin your shirt off in a goal celebration was an offence punishable with a yellow, yet you can tell the ref to "f.uck off you w@nker" safe in the knowledge he'll do just that!! Some idiot on the radio was sayin they get away with it cuz the ref dont hear them....are fans the only people in the world that can lip read?? But, as said, the authorities aint got the balls to do anythin so expect it to continue. Mind, Carra could do with learnin a foreign language next time Mike riley refs us!!

by **LFC #1** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 12:39 pm

KennyisGod....still wrote:Mind, Carra could do with learnin a foreign language next time Mike riley refs us!!

Although Carra speaking really fast scouse would sound like a foreign language.

by **Lando_Griffin** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 6:23 pm

If Ref's can't accept the abuse they get for wrong decisions, they shouldn't be picking up their whistles. Chuff me, Steve Bennett needs more than a "you F**king T*at". he needs a f**king t*at!!! How many more times are we going to get ******-wipes deciding results with dodgy decisions!?! We'd be about 15 points better off if they actually concentrated on the game instead of counting the totals on their Man U and Chelski Cheque-book stubbs!!! Bar-stools!!! (Send the scummy Man U-ers off though, oh yes!!! First time in 7000 years!!!! Roy Keane is a total Pr*ck. Would he be so 'ard in a pub with real men in it, rather than a tunnel with the wet-flanel Viera!?! - Doubt it!):blues:

Liverpool FC Forum

Fa's red card clampdown on foul-mouthed players

Who is online