Quote Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn View Post
"If you book players for that, you'll have a lot of players sat in the stands this season".

Yeah. For 2 weeks, until they wise up.

This kind of thinking infuriates me.

Like, when the back pass law was introduced, there was utter chaos for a while, until keepers started learning how to use their feet or getting benched for those that could.

Nowadays, being able to use your feet is a fundamental skill for a 'keeper and we wonder how we ever tolerated shit like Denmark pulled in Euro 92.

The same principle applies to disciplining players for breaching laws.

All you'd have to do is apply an incredibly strict interpretation of the law and make it clear that this is they way we're doing it from now on. Kick the ball after the whistle has blown? You're booked. Complain afterwards? Off. Already on a yellow? Off.

The first weekend this applied, you'd see 100 yellows and about 10 reds.

The second weekend, you'd see 50 yellows and 5 reds.

After that, we'd be back to normal and we'd wonder how we tolerated blatant timewasting for so long.

Same applies to dissent.

Talk to the ref when you're not the captain? Automatic yellow.

Swear at him? Off.

We wonder why refereeing standards are so poor, it's because the way you progress as a ref isn't based on skill, it's based on being able to deal with vile, hate-filled abuse from all sides on a twice-weekly basis (also skin colour, but that's another discussion).

The person who's really good at deciding what a foul is but refuses to put up with being called every name under the sun, being offered out in car parks and having no power to deal with it is going to pack it in, whereas someone who's not as skilled but has thicker skin is going to stick around.

Every week we see refs being screamed at by professional athletes and just putting up with it, if they had it within their power to send the fuckers off if they refuse to show respect, that would filter down to the lower levels and good refs would actually start working their way up the ranks.