Hit petulant play-actors with a points deduction
IT’S time points were deducted from clubs for poor behaviour.
The final straw was last Wednesday’s dust-up at the Emirates.
Like the rest of the country, yours truly tuned in to see the appetite-sating feast being laid out before us as Arsenal and Manchester City traded blows.
What a shame it wasn’t anything like that – the conduct of all those involved 20 minutes either side of half-time was a disgrace.
There’s not been one word of condemnation from anywhere – apart from on this page – just tumbleweed, a blase acceptance that this is the way it is. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
The petulance was off-the-scale pathetic. Anthony Taylor isn’t my favourite referee but, blimey, he had a job on his hands.
Every single player cried foul every single time one was committed.
Flimsy
I lost count of the number of times someone mouthed, ‘I touched the ball’, or gave some other flimsy reason why the match official shouldn’t penalise them.
Or, worse still in the case of Jack Grealish (right), hurl a mouthful of expletives in Taylor’s direction which, thanks to the invention of high-definition television, were broadcast for billions to see.
At least the England international was booked.
Elsewhere, it was open season as Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal – and I can’t believe I’m writing this because the cheating was as blatant back then – proved themselves to be every bit as whingy and whiny as Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal c.2014.
The manager was just as bad, too – kicking the ball away from Kevin De Bruyne as the Belgian tried to get it back for a throw-in.
Lest we forget, the guy on the touchline is meant to be setting an example.
It’s one thing being a sore loser – no one likes it, but it’s part of professional sport – however, the Spaniard is taking it to a new low.
That’s straying off the point. Manchester City were only marginally behind – while I’m at it, just when is someone going to start cautioning them for tactical fouls? They break up play so innocently.
Now, you might wonder why any of this matters.
It matters because the Premier League have a product to sell. And this wasn’t a great advertisement for it.
If anyone thinks that a continually-disrupted game of football between two teams hellbent on belly-aching, refusing to accept the referee’s decision and pulling every trick imaginable to score some marginal gain is enhancing ‘the product’, then they need to give their head a wobble.
What’s more, it filters down through the leagues, to the semiprofessional game.
And then to grassroots.
Kids are watching this thinking that challenging every single decision is the way forward.
How can the authorities not see this?
The FA has been quick to clamp down on
Liverpool and Everton for a show of handbags when
Andy Robertson and Conor Coady sparked a melee last Monday night.
But they are missing the point. That was one incident. We’re talking about embedded behaviour. It HAS to change.
Unacceptable
Fines don’t work. They are not fit for purpose. Waste of time. Instead, why not have a traffic-light system – green, amber and red. Three times per season when a referee – or his match assessor – deems behaviour by either players or managers as unacceptable in his match report and then points are deducted.
Appeals heard within 48 hours, then a final decision. If the authorities can rescind or award red cards in that time, they can weigh up this, too.
The warning is clear – if the authorities fail to act the situation will reach intolerable levels – and people will switch off.
And then they really will have a problem.