If you were at Reading Football Club’s first League One’s match, you may have thought that the referee was perhaps a little yellow card happy, issuing so many yellow cards, not only to players but also to both teams’ coaches.
If you also watched Manchester City and Arsenal competing for the Community Shield the following day, you will have seen another splash of yellow cards being doled out. So why all the yellow cards?
It is something that those of us who take the middle in the lower realms of the game, have been wanting to happen for years, stricter application of the Laws of the Game. For example, when watching professional games, have you seen any action taken, after a player kicks the ball away when a foul has been given against them, to gain a little more time to get back into position? The answer is almost certainly, never until last Saturday.
And yet for many years, the Laws of the Game have said that delaying the restart of play is a cautionable offence, meaning of course a yellow card. It has become very difficult for referees in grassroots football to take this action when players have seen this going on without sanction regularly on televised matches.
I had to admit that I have gone halfway, I have warned players and said that if they did it again, I would caution them. Another way of delaying the restart of play is for offenders to stand in front of the ball when a free kick has been given against them.
I remember when refereeing a university match, warning a player that if he did it again it would be a yellow card, He screamed at me, ‘What the hell are you talking about’. He couldn’t understand why he was being treated differently to what he witnessed on the television.
Some years ago, Wayne Rooney was shown on television being cautioned by a referee for a tackle and as he walked away, he turned and swore at the referee. By coincidence, a week later the referee was a guest speaker at a referees’ conference, and was asked by a junior referee why he didn’t send Rooney off. ‘Just think’ was his answer, ‘what all those fans who had paid good money to watch that game would have felt, if I had sent a star player off for calling me a name’.
Never mind the fact that footballers at all levels watching that incident, would take it to mean that it’s perfectly OK to abuse referees. That’s why we are happy to see the Laws adhered to, and more disciplinary action taken.
By Dick Sawdon Smith
