Scudamore plans crackdown

Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore has revealed that clubs have unanimously backed a crackdown on abuse of match officials.


The Football Association has a Respect campaign designed at addressing the behaviour at all levels of the sport, but 'unacceptable' conduct remains an issue. Scudamore, who heads the Premier League,a separate body to the FA, claims that clubs are determined to address the incidents following a meeting of club chairmen on Thursday. There have been a number of high-profile incidents this season, most recently when Sir Alex Ferguson received a five-match touchline ban for his
television outburst at referee Martin Atkinson after Manchester United's defeat at Chelsea.But Scudamore has told Sky Sports News chief news reporter Bryan Swanson that there will be a combined effort to address the indiscipline from the start of the next campaign.

Unacceptable

"It is too early to say what is going to be done, but it does start with an education programme and a communication programme," said Scudamore."We have got to get through to the participants. "Every single human being is capable of losing their rag or doing something very petulant or doing something that they are probably not proud of." Scudamore also said: "The clubs unanimously backed the idea that at the start of next season we want to raise the bar, we want to improve behaviour."I
think we do need to concentrate on the player and manager relationship with the referee this time, as everyone of us knows that there have been elements of unacceptable behaviour.

Vitriolic abuse

"As to what we think is unacceptable; it's vitriolic abuse towards match officials and that has on occasions gone unpunished; the surrounding of referees is unacceptable; the goading of referees into trying to get opponents sanctioned we think is unacceptable; and also the undue criticism, where it spills over into questioning the referee's integrity or his honesty is also unacceptable."Scudamore said the League Managers' Association has already signalled its support.He added: "We are at a point in the game where we do have to rein back from some of this undue criticism of match officials. "The debate will come and we will have it in consultation with managers, and remember the managers are also employed by the clubs so the unanimous support of the clubs today is important."