Quote Originally Posted by anfield View Post
I agree, There is a massive culture issue. How often have you seen someone give it to a referee? It happens all the time, Either from a player or from a coach or spectator.

How often do you see a duty officer, fellow player etc pull up their own players?, Hardly ever.

End of the day we need referees and obviously a lot more. I think short term if every zone league squad was to provide someone to do the course then we would have 34 new referees. I think that's a realistic goal. 34 new referees would nearly cover the majority of the zone league fixtures.

I don't think when Northern ran the short course last year that people took it seriously. Now that there is a mass shortage of referees, people might look at it more seriously.
To be honest, it's a football issue. Not a club culture issue, not a Newcastle issue, it's worldwide at all levels. Respect towards officials just ins't there. The only code that has this under control is Rugby Union. There's a precident set there and officials are treated with absolute respect, you do not get away with anything.

I feel like referees cop too much on the chin. There's not enough issueing yellow cards for decent towards them, that will shut it down pretty quickly.

That's all completely off topic from my initial comment. There's no defending the officiating last night.