The Referee

Yesterday the FA revealed plans for a pilot scheme to be started in January to take steps to improve the behaviour of players throughout the game.   The scheme will run in 9 regions and will consist of the following 3 points

1. Only the team captain can talk to the Referee
2. Roped of area’s for parents and spectators
3. All players and officials will be “forced” to sign a pledge signing on to the standards of behaviour.

As a pilot i guess it needs to be started at Grass Roots.  I don’t Referee currently on the parks but so I cant really say how much of a difference making a roped of area will help.  I guess it would mean they wouldn’t be wandering up and down the touchline but there still going to hurl some abuse.   

The “pledge” is very well but I don’t really see much benefit to that to be honest.  The only thing extra I guess is if they sign it and then cause problems then this could be used as a punishment.

The area im most interested by is the Captains.   Now I can see this is a copy of the Ruby method where only the captain can approach the Referee.   While its a good idea in theory and could help prevent problems like Mike Dean had at Chelsea the other week.  It may also damage the relationship between Referee & Players if you build a wall.   Also experience says some team captains are a pain in the ass and wont listen to you anyway. 

A lot of Referee’s will try to work with the Captains and try to use them when they have a player getting close to the line.  Those Captains that respond to this and work with you will embrace this proposal, those that dont will probably become worse.   

Its interesting to read Graham Poll’scomments about these proposals.  He quotes Brian Barwick as saying that he wants to improve the game from top to bottom.  Poll says in this case why not start at the top.  While I agree that it would be good to bring in at the top, starting at Grass Roots level is a start and much easier to implement.  I also suspect it can be done easier at Grass Roots level without FIFA getting to involved.

Listen to Brian Bardwick speak on this thanks to Radio 5.