The rulers of English football have declared a crackdown on bad behaviour and promised a blitz of yellow and red cards to end ugly scenes like last season’s Battle of the Bridge between Chelsea and Tottenham.
The Premier League, Football League and the FA have joined forces in a bid to eradicate verbal and physical dissent and aggressive conduct towards match officials in the new season.
It will extend to coaching staff in the technical area.
Players and staff from the top 92 clubs in the country will be informed of changes in the way existing rules will be interpreted when the season starts next month and shown training videos of what to expect.
Examples include Chelsea’s Diego Costa screaming into the face of Michael Oliver, Watford’s Odion Ighalo berating an assistant referee and Nottingham Forest goalkeeper Dorus De Vries chasing halfway down the pitch to protest a decision.
There will be yellow cards for dissent and red cards for more serious infringements such as insulting or offensive language and gestures, and deliberate physical contact with officials.
The authorities have also vowed to improve refereeing standards with more full-time officials — 18 referees and 36 assistants in the Championship.
Areas where the existing laws of the game will be more rigorously enforced are:
*Dissent, including reactions such as slamming the ball into the ground and verbally disputing a decision will result in a yellow card.
*Stronger reactions such as insulting or abusive language or gestures towards match officials will result in a red card.
Physical contact with match officials will attract a yellow and possibly a red card.
lWhen two or more players crowd the officials it will result in a yellow card for one player at least and trigger the FA’s existing review system.
*Enforcement of the code of conduct in technical areas.
Officials will have to refrain from over-familiarity with players, managers and coaching staff because it threatens to compromise their neutral status.
Martin Glenn, Richard Scudamore and Shaun Harvey, chief executives of the FA, the Premier League and the Football League respectively, agree standards have been eroded and that previous campaigns had lost impetus.
Glenn said: ‘We want passion and intensity but there is a line.’
The match between Chelsea and Tottenham in May was littered with confrontations which earned the clubs fines totalling £600,000, before the punishments were reduced on appeal.
‘That was a guilty pleasure for me,’ said Scudamore. ‘I loved it and you couldn’t say it wasn’t compelling viewing but I felt there was an element that wasn’t right. The Ighalo incident is more of an example to me of what looks wrong.’ – Daily Mail