With all my years of refereeing, I thought I had heard every excuse from players for their lapses in behaviour but last week I was faced with an entirely new one. Just after the game started there was a flurry of bad language. Not aimed at me I might add - but at team mates. As always I shouted in a voice loud enough for all to hear, that we didn't need that sort of language.
All the players seemed to take the hint with the exception of one defender, so I repeated loudly my previous warning. Shortly afterwards he mouthed some more expletives. I took him to one side. 'I can't help it ref,' he said, 'I suffer from - and he quoted some long medical-sounding term, means I can't stop myself swearing'. 'I couldn't care less what affliction you have,' I replied, 'whilst you are on the football field, you are bound by the same conditions as everyone else or take the consequences'. The funny thing is, that in the next eighty minutes he only swore once more and I that I forgave him.
There are people, including some referees, who feel my tolerance level to swearing is too low, that it is unrealistic, saying 'It's just everyday language'. I suggest that, if a group of young men came down their street, shouting and mouthing obscenities, they would soon be asking for an ASBO to be slapped on them. So why is it thought to be acceptable on a local playing
field?
In fact a number of football pitches have been closed because surrounding residents and other park users, have complained about the language from players. But my greatest objection to offensive language on the football field, is that by its very nature it is aggressive and, as we all know, aggression breeds aggression.
If proof of this is required, then I think we need look no further than the Arsenal v Manchester United game at Highbury. Let me confess that I am only going on what I saw in the news and read in the newspapers. When shown on the news the sound was turned down but apparently live viewers heard the foul-mouthed attack from the Manchester United captain prompted by intimidatory remarks from the Arsenal skipper. And this was whilst they were in the tunnel waiting to take the field.
The result was described as tribal warfare of seething tackles, shirt-pulling and verbal spats with six yellow cards and one red. And according to those who count these things, one hundred swear words in ninety minutes.
All this happened before tens of thousands of family viewers including children. I've always believed the quote, 'Children are more in need of models than critics'. Apart from pop stars, the greatest role models for children are top footballers. One of their biggest idols, Wayne Rooney, was apparently the worse offender on the evening with ten swear words in a minute, after he had been cautioned.
By coincidence, all of this happened on the day that Ofsted, the education watchdog, revealed that behaviour in secondary schools is now at its worst level ever.
It is very difficult for ordinary referees to criticise those at the top level. The pressures are enormous and there has long been a culture of offensive language amongst professional players. Graham Poll is the most respected referee in the country but I think if he had taken out a second yellow card to Wayne Rooney or turned it into red, he would have been doing a service, not only to those who watch the professional game but also to referees on parks throughout the country and probably to schools. People say you will never stop swearing in the professional game but I think that if I can cure one player of an ailment that made him unable to stop swearing, I'm sure nothing is impossible, if the will is
there