Nah. Rooney calling a ref "a ****ing ****" live on air in front of milions of people, is all part of the passion/show right?
I wrote on the other referee's thread that I used to be a club secretary after I stopped playing and the league rules were if no referee turned up we had to supply a ref, so I always ended up doing it. I got abused from the start of every game to the end, including my own team's players, but not only that knowing the ref wasn't 'official' both sets of players would fly in with knee high challenges and cheat and lie even more than usual. If you gave a penalty it was a little short of World War III. I was threatened I'd be knifed for the first one I ever gave - even though two of their defenders told their team mates it was. Even in the games with a proper ref I used to watch the spectators on the touchline and they'd have bulging eyes and red vein-popping faces as they shouted and abused players and officials on both sides. I even got abused by opposition players for having a club website set up! Of course the players, of my club too, all cheat, foul and lie and theY definitely emulate what they see on Sky Sports. I also got told f**k off by text when I texted the secretary of the club of our next fixture with match day details [a league rule] I don't think he was their club secretary any more but his number was in the handbook. On the other hand I wrote two letters of recommendation to the league about very sporting teams we played and good referees we had. The club recommended got a £250 reward for that. I think it was so unusual it stuck out. I actually got League secretary of the Year mainly because I followed the league rules about match results and administration of the club - then I resigned and I have nothing to do with football at all. I used to go to the local pitches to watch any old game once, now I don't go near them. Just for record I played in goal until I was 45 and got booked twice, (once for swearing at the referee when actually I hadn't, I said 'Come on lads', I'm not sure what he heard [the opposition manager told him I didn't swear but he wouldn't have it], once for arguing about a free-kick that was taken about ten yards in from where it should have been and they scored), I was sent off twice for the dreaded professional foul, both resulted in penalties, one I did on purpose but one was an accident. I also was punched twice in the face at the end of a game for punching a long throw off a opposition players head. Finally, having actually played on the same team as Roger East, we were on the same team that won the Commercial Houses Minnows Cup, I know some the stories of officiating, including Alex Ferguson calling a linesman a c**t at the top of his voice as he ran the line, and raining this expletive down on him for an entire half any time he got near him, my friends said 'What did he do Roger?', answer, 'Pretended he didn't hear him'. He's not the only one, there's one rule for the big boys and another one for the rest.
And that's why the sport is going to suffer at grassroots level and, eventually, at much higher levels. No-one gets to verbally or physically abuse the referee (or assistant referee at that). If FIFA clamped down on it at all levels, it would eventually stop it - but at the start it would be a massive issue. I don't like fans around me abusing the ref (honest, Tom!) using foul language (there are ladies and children present) - yes, we all get carried away occasionally, but there's no need to be like that and there's absolutely no excuse for physical abuse. I think they should actually start at the top - dish out cards for swearing at the refs/assistant refs and ban managers from the touchline (and fine them heavily with the money going to some kind of charity for players). I know I'm living in dreamland, but I don't see Ron, Eddie Howe, Jurgen or any of the "decent" managers I've come across calling refs vile names. Yes, they may disagree, but they're not like that piece of work Ferguson and his ilk. That sort of behaviour (and I include Rooney, most of the Arsenal, Chelsea, West Ham, Man U players - funny they're all from "big" teams - in this) merits as long a ban as Vic got for his red cards .......... Stamp it out or we'll all suffer because no-one will want to ref a game - I certainly wouldn't!!
I agree 100%, when I played I have been incandescent with rage over some decisions but I have never abused the referee or even argued that much, there's no point. I have always asked the referee about decisions and called him/her 'referee' and I have always said 'well played' and sought them out to shake hands and the end of the match no matter what'. I used to play with a big Scottish lad, who was a centre-back, he was a really good player too, and he was as hard as nails on the pitch, but fair, and as soon as the final whistle went it was like a switch was flicked in him, he never held a grudge, never carried anything on, he just used to say 'games over' and that was that. He took his referee's exams and became a Sunday league ref. With your point about dishing out cards, imagine if in the top leagues referees started awarding penalties for every incidence of shirt pulling? There'd be a few 8-7s before it settled down!
I don't condone physical or verbal abuse, of match officials, but even when I used to play, 30+ years ago, it seemed that every team had at least one "nutter" who would never accept a decision and would have something to say about it. The fact that officials are being abused isn't new. That the abuse has escalated and worsened is, in many ways, a sign of the times, in which we live, and reflects society today, which is, IMO, less tolerant and less respectful than it used to be. You only need to read some Internet forums, to realise that some people lack social niceties and think it is perfectly acceptable to respond to a comment they disagree with, by name calling or the use of profanities, so why should we be surprised when a footballer does the same, in the heat of the moment? There are "nutters" everywhere.
There are so many things the FA could tackle in this way as well as dissent; diving/exaggerating, holding, tugging shirts etc. I genuinely don't understand why they don't just bite the bullet and get it done. As you say, all over in a couple of weeks and a better game as a result.
