Any thoughts ?

Wrong what he did BUT there has to be URGENT ACTION by the FA to stop the abuse the refs get from players..
The Ipswich player ( Judge ) marched up to him , wagging his finger in his face and who knows what he was saying but what actions will he get charged with ??
You see it every game where these players think they can say / abuse the refs and they are untouchable.
Something has to be done to stop it.

The ref is only human , Judge must have said something that tipped him over the edge...what would most people do in similar circumstances.
Has Judge been charged with anything yet ??

Well put
Respect?
The captain should be the only player to question a decision with the ref
Appalling how little support the refs get
This poor sod will struggle to live this one down. .

As a ref myself I feel he lost his composure and control momentarily and he will get punished by the league (either dropping him for a game or demoting him to a NL game for a week), more importantly he will have lost the respect of the players and coaches.

Fortunately he regained control and booked Judge for diving a few minutes later, I haven’t seen that incident so can’t comment on the possibility he was looking for an excuse to book the player.

Grassroots football (junior and senior levels) has a ‘sin bin’ in England with players who show the ref dissent sent off for 8mins before they return, his team go down to 10 players, he gets a chance to clear his head before coming back on. Great idea and something I’d like to see introduced in the higher leagues.

DeePeeNCAFC wrote:As a ref myself I feel he lost his composure and control momentarily and he will get punished by the league (either dropping him for a game or demoting him to a NL game for a week), more importantly he will have lost the respect of the players and coaches.

Fortunately he regained control and booked Judge for diving a few minutes later, I haven’t seen that incident so can’t comment on the possibility he was looking for an excuse to book the player.

Grassroots football (junior and senior levels) has a ‘sin bin’ in England with players who show the ref dissent sent off for 8mins before they return, his team go down to 10 players, he gets a chance to clear his head before coming back on. Great idea and something I’d like to see introduced in the higher leagues.

Sin bins are a good idea which should replace bookings.

neilcork68 wrote:Wrong what he did BUT there has to be URGENT ACTION by the FA to stop the abuse the refs get from players..
The Ipswich player ( Judge ) marched up to him , wagging his finger in his face and who knows what he was saying but what actions will he get charged with ??
You see it every game where these players think they can say / abuse the refs and they are untouchable.
Something has to be done to stop it.

The ref is only human , Judge must have said something that tipped him over the edge...what would most people do in similar circumstances.
Has Judge been charged with anything yet ??

Neil being a ref myself I've backed ref's and criticized them as well but some of the abuse I've had and witnessed is completely wrong

Me personally I've had in a Newport and district game a spectator say they where going to rape my family

I've heard spectators at our games shout I hope the ref gets cancer
It's a game of football for God sake
Refs are human

Simply sorted;

Only the captain may address / discuss with the referee, anything to the contrary is a yellow.

A fair bit back we had the 10 yard rule I thought it worked well but it was dropped

It's a perfect example of what happens when the regulating authority (the FA) and the leagues fail to act on what has been a worsening problem over decades. And the action should have started at the top - in professional football because what the kids see on the TV will be replicated by them on the school pitch and on the parks nationwide.

As Jack says, the answer is perfectly simple. Rugby never has had a problem because they have never allowed the authority of the referee or other officials to be eroded the way that football has. And the "fault" could be corrected today. All the FA (or the leagues) have to say is that from today referees are advised to book any player other than the team captain that questions a decision the match officials make. They don't have to go to FIFA for permission because it isn't a rule change, it is merely an advisory position taken to reduce the incidence of abuse of match officials.

The only problem is that football is run by people with no balls and because of this nothing will happen other than the referee will be banned because the clubs will demand it and the FA will cave in like they always do.