Last week I mentioned some of the changes to the Laws of the Game that will come into force from July onwards. Alongside these changes, some suggested trials to be conducted were also agreed.
Trials for changes of Laws that have been put forward are carried out on a regular basis. Some get taken into the Laws whilst others are forgotten.
They are normally conducted in domestic competitions. However, there was recently a meeting of UEFA national managers including England’s manager, Gareth Southgate, when they were briefed for the coming Euros.
UEFA, it seems, intends to have a tough crack down on discipline, including dissent to referees and the habit of players surrounding the referee.
I wonder if rather than waiting for games in domestic competitions, at least one of these selected trials is going to be put into force at the Euros. This is the one that says, ‘Only the team’s captain is able to approach the referee in certain circumstances’.
‘Unacceptable player behaviour is a problem for referees’, said Roberto Rosetti, UEFA’s managing director of UEFA refereeing at the meeting. ‘However we want to avoid unnecessary cards and protect the image of the game, so we will be strong with mobbing and clear dissent’.
We have of course heard all this before of stopping mobbing as he has called it, but it still goes on unabated, I’m sure that referees throughout Europe will be watching with great care and be delighted if Roberto Rosetti has found a fool proof method of removing this blight of the game.
It seems that he is relying on the team managers. ‘We have to do something’, he said to them, ‘and we need you, because you’re super important for us. The players are following you and if you are calm, your players are more calm’.
Think of the number of coaches/managers who in the Premier League have made outbursts about, and sometimes to referees this season, especially when they have lost.
Many have also been fined very large amounts for their behaviour. Can the national team managers remain calm and if so, will it make any difference?
I remember a Rugby League official being asked: ‘why rugby players do not argue with the referee and leave any questioning to their captain, while football players crowd the referee to have their say’.
‘The answer is very simple’ he said. ‘You have the power to stop It, but you never use it’. What he meant of course was the yellow card for dissent.
By Dick Sawdon Smith
