Premier stars must show respect as League signs up to new FA initiative
Football authorities are about to join forces to unveil a blueprint aimed at cleaning up the professional game and transforming it into a shining example of sporting decency.
The Barclays Premier League have agreed to sign up for the FA's 'Respect' initiative which is designed to banish the ugly scenes of dissent which marred last season.
No respect: Chelsea's Ashley Cole turns his back on referee Mike Riley.
Public opinion moved strongly against star players when Ashley Cole turned his back on referee Mike Riley and Javier Mascherano refused to leave the field after receiving a red card.
In addition, Chelsea were twice fined for failing to control their players and John Terry tried to snatch a red card out of referee Mike Dean's hand.
FA chairman Lord Triesman has picked up the Respect campaign, which was already on trial in grass-roots football, and driven it into the professional game during a series of summer talks.
The Football League, the Professional Footballers' Association and the League Managers Association have all been part of the dialogue and will back the new guidelines from the start of this season.
Players, managers and coaching staff will be restricted in their contact with officials during games, though the pilot scheme found that only allowing the captain to talk to the referee did not work.
'Respect' was tried out midway through last season when 20 leagues of various age limits across the country took part in a 12-week trial.
The key themes were: only the captain could address the referee; spectators must stay behind a rope - irrelevant in professional football; all clubs signed a code of conduct accepting the rules and agreeing a set of punishments if the rules were broken.
Reaction was overwhelmingly positive but everyone agreed the programme stood no chance of success without the backing of football's elite, due to children's eagerness to copy their heroes.
Similar initiatives have been tried before. Three years ago the Premier League launched 'Respect the ref, respect the game' to clamp down on abusive language, diving and mass confrontation.
The initial hard-line approach usually softens after a while but this time the FA are determined to make 'Respect' work in the long term, re-educating players about what is acceptable behaviour.
Sir Trevor Brooking, the FA's director of football development, said: 'We don't want to see it disintegrating two or three weeks into the season because it's not working.'
