Players should start behaving like grown-ups

PRESSURE Kuipers surrounded by pleading PSG players

APART from not knowing his arm from his shoulder, Bjorn Kuipers had a pretty decent game.

And if the Dutch referee did make the odd mistake, then who could blame him?

Trying to concentrate when you have a field full of grown-ups moaning and crying in your ear must be a thankless task.

No wonder he might have taken his eye off the ball. No wonder he might have indulged Fernandinho

(right), who must have broken his own personal record when going unsanctioned for what could easily have been deemed a yellow card offence after about 60 seconds.

Somehow, it has long been accepted that players screaming at referees is just part of the fabric of the game.

It is a stain on the fabric of the game, more like it, but one we all seem to accept.

Remember when there was going to be zero tolerance of players brandishing imaginary cards?

Or was that just a figment of my imagination? And before anyone thinks this is aimed solely at the playactors of Paris Saintgermain, think again.

Riyad Mahrez is in prime form right now but still finds time to wave the bogus yellow.

It is pathetic. Again, it might be the memory playing tricks but wasn’t there a time when players sometimes asked referees not to book an opponent?

When fair play was considered a badge of honour?

Actually, Kuipers was not that great and his erroneous penalty award – corrected by the muchmaligned VAR system – after the ball had bounced off Oleksandr Zinchenko’s shoulder/ neck, was a shocker.

But the feigning and duplicity that streaks through this sort of game makes it easier to forgive refereeing inconsistencies.

Judging the malice of a challenge is a thankless task when you have the likes of Angel Di Maria and Neymar hitting the deck with such theatricality.

There lies the problem. No wonder Kuipers can’t tell his arm from his shoulder.