New rules for Referees - should be interesting

[Wonderwall]

The Referees have new powers to give cards out, IMO its long overdue and could see Arsenal, Utd and Chelsea finish a game with 7 players if the previous seasons are anything to go by

Offences which could earn players a yellow card

- Visibly disrespectful behaviour to any match official;
- An aggressive response to decisions;
- Confronting an official face to face;
- Running towards an official to contest a decision;
- Offensive, insulting or abusive language and/or gestures towards match officials;
- Physical contact with any match official in a non-aggressive manner;
- A yellow card for at least one player when two or more from a team surround a match official.

New red card offences

- If a player confronts match officials and uses offensive, insulting or abusive language and/or gestures towards them;
- Physical contact with match officials in an aggressive or confrontational manner.

[Scatman]

could, but won't, especially if you are called Wayne

[john@staustell]

That's Shrek and John Terry fucked then.

But I'll believe it when I see it. I heard Martin Atkinson's fairly dismissive answer to a perfectly reasonable question from a TS presenter on stopping all that hugging in the penalty box. The idiot didn't think there was a problem

[BlueinBosnia]

- Physical contact with any match official in a non-aggressive manner;

How does that work? Does that mean something like Vinnie putting his hand on the ref's shoulder or elbow when the ref's explaining his decision (which I'm sure I've seen him do semi-regularly)?

[Original Dub]

I don't like where this is headed...

More silly rules completely left open to interpretation depending on one individual. More chances for said individual to directly influence the outcome of any game.

Another step backwards.

[I Just Blue Myself]

Yeah, better stick with this:

Watch on youtube.com

[patrickblue]

What are they doing about aggressive walking?

[PeterParker]

Does this new line of rules will only be for us, no?

[Wonderwall]

That's 22 yellows in the prematch handshake :-)

[nottsblue]

As with all rules, they will be open to interpretation. As the current list of referees won't have changed too much from last season, I strongly suspect the old Sky4/Top4 teams of rags, dippers, chavs and arse won't see much difference in the way their teams are dealt with. In fact they will probably be beneficiaries as more of their opponents will undoubtedly fall foul of these changes. #cynical

[Dameerto]

That's 22 yellows in the prematch handshake :-)

That made me laugh

[iwasthere2012]

That's 22 yellows in the prematch handshake :-)

That made me laugh

I was thinking....it's surprising that we haven't seen some diving, clutching their heads as if they've been poleaxed, going on in the pre-match handshaking, already.
The way some of these cheating bastards act, it's the next natural step for them.

[Foreverinbluedreams]

New?

[bigblue]

Can't see this being enforced differently for Wilshire/Shrek/Henderson than for Sterling/Yaya/Vinny. Nope not at all.

They should just mic up the refs, maybe even make that as an audio option on the TV

[BlueinBosnia]

Can't see this being enforced differently for Wilshire/Shrek/Henderson than for Sterling/Yaya/Vinny. Nope not at all.

They should just mic up the refs, maybe even make that as an audio option on the TV

I'd love that. It's been done in rugby for years. It'd also mean a massive reduction in abusive language, due to offending viewers and potentially reducing sponsorship revenues.