Football must be rescued from the louts

5:46pm Friday 28th March 2008

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PLAYER behaviour and respect for referees has hit the headlines again this week. I am amazed that there are still those who are prepared to defend actions that are steadily eroding the respect the game once had throughout the country.

The apologists for the louts who gather mob-handed to bellow obscenities and abuse at referees talk about "passion for the game", "the heat of the moment" etc.

Are they suggesting that rugby players have no passion? That cricketers don't care?

Yet these sports seem to produce men who can take even perceived injustices on the chin and move on, with a shake of the head at worst.

I heard Tony Hawkes, the comedian, talking about his childhood as an aspiring tennis player this week.

He spoke of his youthful emulation of Jimmy Connors, when the latter's fiery temperament led him to hurl his racket to the ground and question decisions - minor stuff admittedly in the context of the recent behaviour of some Premiership players.

He said his behaviour changed when Bjorn Borg came on the scene and proved that the Ice Man Winneth.

Was there ever a better example of the effect that high-profile footballers can have on the young players of their generation?

Anyone who has witnessed primary school parents and their children hurling abuse at referees would know that something must be done to rescue football.

It is no coincidence that when there was self-discipline on the pitch, when the likes of the lowly paid Stanley Matthews and Billy Wright were playing football, with passion, the behaviour of the tens of thousands who stood in the terraces to watch them was similarly exemplary.

Who would put themselves in the firing line today to referee a grass roots match? No wonder so many referees are walking away from the game they love.

Something needs to be done urgently, at all levels.

But it is overwhelmingly evident that only a sea shift in the attitude of the League, the FA and FIFA, that empowers and encourages referees to penalise unsportsmanlike and loutish behaviour instantly and effectively, can reverse the trend.

Maybe some of rugby's excellent stratagems could be tried?

Only the captain may speak to the referee, a sin bin and ten yard advancement of free kicks for dissent?

No one who has seen louts arguing with police officers in the street can doubt the effect the behaviour on the pitch is having in society.