England’s football manager, Gareth Southgate, is reported to be perturbed about the amount of swearing coming from his players. As he was a former professional footballer, it’s odd he had just noticed that players swear profusely.
Some years ago, a Whitley referee’s young son was an avid Manchester United fan.
So when Reading were due to play the Manchester team at Elm Park in a cup match, he couldn’t wait to see his heroes play. He came home from the match in tears.
Having taken his place on the terraces close to the pitch, he could hear every word they uttered. ‘They were swearing all the time’, he told his dad. His heroes had feet of clay.
The Laws of the Game regarding bad language say ‘a player, substitute or substituted player should be sent off if he uses offensive, insulting, or abusive language or/and gestures’.
Offensive is perhaps open to interpretation; some referees have a higher tolerance level than others. Insulting and abusive are more clearly defined and of course it does not have to be swearing.
If a player called me a cheat, that to me would be insulting. Despite what many people think, the offence isn’t just language or gestures aimed at referees, it could be at anyone.
There was a recent report of a referee sending off a player for being abusive to an opponent.
It’s not just professional football where swearing is common. There have been cases of councils banning football from recreation grounds following complaints about the footballer’s language, from people whose houses run alongside or from families taking the children for a walk in the park.
Earlier this season, I ran the line at an under 19 national league match where one of the teams was from the academy of a London Premier League club.
After the match I asked their coach if part of the curriculum was to teach their young players to swear, as they couldn’t seem to get through a sentence without one expletive or another.
If Gareth is keen to do something about footballer’s language, perhaps he could start at the academies.
By Dick Sawdon Smith
