Slipperduke
The Camden Cad
Another year, another desperate attempt by the Football Association to regain some semblance of control over their sport. This week's announcement that managers will no longer be able to criticise referees before the game has even started is just the latest in a series of inadequate sticking plasters, slapped down in all the wrong places. It's like the Respect campaign. A nice idea enforced with all the strength and menace of a wet kitten.
Football is the only sport where the referee's decisions are met with such vitriol and outrage. Behave the way that footballers do towards match officials in a game of rugby and you'll be on the receiving end of a ban so long that it would make Papillon think he got off lightly. In this year's Ashes series between England and Australia, the umpires have made a number of dubious, match-changing decisions, but you don't see howling players surrounding them and screaming in their face. Week in and week out, footballers and football managers behave like spoilt children, fired up on E numbers, ranting and raging instead of taking responsibility for their own inadequacies. Why do they do it? Because the FA let them do it.
The Respect campaign died on the day that Mike Riley allowed Ashley Cole to turn his back on him. It was public notice that the game's officials were cowards, unwilling and unable to enforce their bold words. Cole, who was fortunate to be receiving just a yellow card for his studs-up assault on Alan Hutton, should have been sent off for his petulance and dissent. The FA should have weighed in and extended his ban to hammer home the point. But no-one did anything. No-one did a thing because this is football and no-one ever does. Riley, incidentally, is now the chief referee for the Premier League.
How did we ever get to the point where we were having to discuss pre-match comments about the officials? How did things get so bad? People shouldn't even be making post-match comments about them, especially when the blame is usually much closer to home. Millionaire international superstar Didier Drogba missed an absolute sitter against Barcelona in last season's controversial Champions League semi-final, but no-one remembers that because it's far easier to blame the poorly paid, vulnerable man in black. Yes, he had a stinker of a night, missing a number of penalty shouts, but that wouldn't have mattered if Drogba could have been relied upon to hit a cow's bottom with a banjo. Strange that footballers can be forgiven for screwing up their basic motor skills, but referees are expected to operate perfectly without technological assistance, with no guarantee of a good view and often after having run 10 kilometers.
If the FA want power then they have to seize it by force. Financial deductions mean nothing to multi-million pound corporations. Let's have touchline bans for every public castigation of an official by a manager. Let's see point deductions for repeat offences. And never mind this new 'threat' of a charge for behaving in a 'confrontational manner'. Referees should be pulling out red cards for dissent with no hesitation and if they fails in their duty, the FA should pick up the slack with retrospective punishment.
Think I'm being reactionary? You're probably right, but I'll make a bet with you right now. Before this season is out, you'll hear Sir Alex Ferguson, Rafa Benitez, Arsene Wenger and all the rest of them sounding off about the match officials as if this never happened. You'll see players surrounding the referee, tugging at his yellow card with impunity. Words and ideas are all very nice, but only action will solve the problem. The FA need to start getting tough.
Football is the only sport where the referee's decisions are met with such vitriol and outrage. Behave the way that footballers do towards match officials in a game of rugby and you'll be on the receiving end of a ban so long that it would make Papillon think he got off lightly. In this year's Ashes series between England and Australia, the umpires have made a number of dubious, match-changing decisions, but you don't see howling players surrounding them and screaming in their face. Week in and week out, footballers and football managers behave like spoilt children, fired up on E numbers, ranting and raging instead of taking responsibility for their own inadequacies. Why do they do it? Because the FA let them do it.
The Respect campaign died on the day that Mike Riley allowed Ashley Cole to turn his back on him. It was public notice that the game's officials were cowards, unwilling and unable to enforce their bold words. Cole, who was fortunate to be receiving just a yellow card for his studs-up assault on Alan Hutton, should have been sent off for his petulance and dissent. The FA should have weighed in and extended his ban to hammer home the point. But no-one did anything. No-one did a thing because this is football and no-one ever does. Riley, incidentally, is now the chief referee for the Premier League.
How did we ever get to the point where we were having to discuss pre-match comments about the officials? How did things get so bad? People shouldn't even be making post-match comments about them, especially when the blame is usually much closer to home. Millionaire international superstar Didier Drogba missed an absolute sitter against Barcelona in last season's controversial Champions League semi-final, but no-one remembers that because it's far easier to blame the poorly paid, vulnerable man in black. Yes, he had a stinker of a night, missing a number of penalty shouts, but that wouldn't have mattered if Drogba could have been relied upon to hit a cow's bottom with a banjo. Strange that footballers can be forgiven for screwing up their basic motor skills, but referees are expected to operate perfectly without technological assistance, with no guarantee of a good view and often after having run 10 kilometers.
If the FA want power then they have to seize it by force. Financial deductions mean nothing to multi-million pound corporations. Let's have touchline bans for every public castigation of an official by a manager. Let's see point deductions for repeat offences. And never mind this new 'threat' of a charge for behaving in a 'confrontational manner'. Referees should be pulling out red cards for dissent with no hesitation and if they fails in their duty, the FA should pick up the slack with retrospective punishment.
Think I'm being reactionary? You're probably right, but I'll make a bet with you right now. Before this season is out, you'll hear Sir Alex Ferguson, Rafa Benitez, Arsene Wenger and all the rest of them sounding off about the match officials as if this never happened. You'll see players surrounding the referee, tugging at his yellow card with impunity. Words and ideas are all very nice, but only action will solve the problem. The FA need to start getting tough.
