bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Peter Simpson

Hell hath no fury like an under-12 junior football team wrongly flagged offside by a middle-aged dad roped into running the line for a Sunday morning fixture.
Eleven-year-olds know the offside rule like the back of their hands because they have been raised on the Fifa video game series.
Test their knowledge at your peril. Their high-pitched voices will let it be known with the all the authority of a pride of adolescent lions that you are a buffoon bringing shame on the dad class.
Arsenal’s Wenger hit with another misconduct charge
Highly embarrassing though it is, what can come next is unexpected, uncalled for, wholly unacceptable and must be stamped out.
Because nothing puts the fear of God into anyone voluntarily facilitating the game’s bedrock Sunday league contests than a bunch of other dads/guardians wading into officials with all the menacing thuggery of Colombian drug-cartel foot soldiers.
Expletives and threats can fill the air as the official is vilified in front of 22-plus kids in need of moral compassing despite their all-knowing, all-footballing savvy.
The adult amateur game is worse. There, it’s the players who go for the officials’ jugular, too often literally.

Take amateur ref Ryan Hampson. He recently called a referee strike over grassroots abuse. More than 800 refs welcomed his militancy and threatened to join his picket over the verbal and physical attacks from players and spectators.
Hampson, who is just 18 and started refereeing at 14 in his home town of Manchester, detailed how he had been punched, headbutted, spat at and blocked inside a changing room during his first three years of officiating amateur matches.
He bemoaned the lack of support from his local FA and the national FA.
This week Hampson called off the strike because – finally – the custodians of the game agreed to address the disgraceful erosion of law of order on community football pitches.
China’s spending frightens Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger
The Manchester Football Association has stepped up, arranging a meeting with the FA’s newly appointed “Respect” manager who will be charged with reinvigorating the campaign that was launched amid much fanfare in 2008.
You may recall the Respect armbands and banners in high-profile games and tournaments.
But a recent survey of more than 2,000 officials in England found that though 54 per cent of referees felt the Respect campaign had been successful, most said they felt “disenfranchised” by the perceived top-down nature of the initiative and unsupported when incidents of abuse happened.
Ending the culture of abuse once and for all will take a generation at least. Cultural change requires time, investment and a consistent message, everything the previous Respect campaign lacked. Abuse is back with a vengeance, according to officials like Hampson.

Even then, the campaign for sportsmanship will face a setback every time one of the highly paid ambassadors of the professional game takes verbal and especially physical umbrage with an official – just as Arsene Wenger did when he pushed and hurled abuse at officials last weekend in the game against Burnley.
We watch football as much for the passion it generates as for the intense competition and entertaining skills it provides.
That even the quiet, rational and steely intellectual anorak-wearing Wenger can jump up and down and cheer and cry like the rest of us is part of the appeal.
Unsavoury as it is, even some of the collective blue-laden chants at the officials and the opposition from the terraces have long been taken and excused for what they are – adult-themed pantomime.
Everton’s Koeman mocks Wenger as Arsenal boss blames referee for defeat
But laying your hands on an official in a threatening manner at any level of the game is a legal and moral crime that must never be tolerated.
The FA must throw the library’s book vault at Wenger and make an example of him with a six-game ban and heavy fine at the very least.
No one must be seen to be above the law, be it those of the game or the land.
Otherwise those righteous and justifiable under-12s’ protests against premature flag waving from middle-aged dads masquerading as officials might morph into a William Golding Lord of the Flies-esque savaging, where respect for the game is the last thing on their young minds.


Manchester United win, Spurs stunned, Medvedev meltdown, Springboks beat Scots

Slumping City lose again, Australia win at death, Zheng’s collapse hands Gauff WTA title

Fantasy Premier League: a good week to pick up some Spurs, skippered by Mohamed Salah

It’ll be a ‘different world’ at Manchester United, says exiting Sporting boss Ruben Amorim

English Premier League

Book must be thrown at ‘The Professor’ Arsene Wenger if the kids are to learn respect

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger clashes with fourth official Anthony Taylor before being sent to the stands. Photo: Reuters

Fourth official Anthony Taylor (L) points Arsenal's French manager Arsene Wenger (R) to the tunnel after he was sent off by English referee Jonathan Moss (not pictured) during the English Premier League football match between Arsenal and Burnley at the Emirates Stadium in London on January 22, 2017. Arsenal won the game 2-1. / AFP PHOTO / Ian KINGTON / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. /

Arsenal's French manager Arsene Wenger (2nd L) is sent to the stands by English referee Jonathan Moss (L) as fourth official Anthony Taylor (R) looks on during the English Premier League football match between Arsenal and Burnley at the Emirates Stadium in London on January 22, 2017. Arsenal won the game 2-1. / AFP PHOTO / Ian KINGTON / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. /

Sport

Football

When push comes to shove, pugnacious Arsenal boss must be given lengthy ban to stop verbal and physical abuse of officials at all levels


Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Column

Home and Away

Home And Away | Book must be thrown at ‘The Professor’ Arsene Wenger if the kids are to learn respect

When push comes to shove, pugnacious Arsenal boss must be given lengthy ban to stop verbal and physical abuse of officials at all levels