The media again avoids the real issue of the behaviour on TV

[RustyRef]

Gary Linekar was praised on social media for his opinion all abuse towards referees should be an immediate yellow card.

Assuming he means dissent rather than abuse (he best not be suggesting abuse should only be a yellow), then his heavily praised idea is something which already exists and isn’t applied.

I Personally think the responsibility lies on the FA dishing out stronger punishments at grassroots level rather than it being sorted at the higher level. Regardless of the almost non existence of dissent cards at the top level, referees on the whole at grassroots carry out sin bins and INOFFABUS reds regularly. They are doing their job and obviously the punishment doesn’t fit the crime. If Jurgen Klopp gets a 6 game ban that won’t stop Joe Bloggs at grassroots calling me a **** on Saturday.

I think there are two separate things. Really don't see how anyone can say that referee assaults at grass roots is caused, or contributed to by, what top level players do. Simply because there is nothing to copy, as referee assaults at top levels of the game are virtually non-existent. Those who attack referees are the same people that will start a fight in a pub at the slightest provocation, abuse their partners, abuse shop staff, etc, they aren't thinking of what they saw on TV or at a top level game in the seconds before they assault the referee.

But I certainly do think that behaviours at top levels contribute to general player behaviour at grass roots, including dissent and abuse. If people see their heroes surrounding referees and screaming in their face they are going to think it is OK to do that in their game on Sunday. That's just human behaviour. If they see players on TV sent off for verbal assault of a referee it might just make them think twice before they do it on Sunday morning.