'Knocking the ref is part of the game'

Referees expect "unsavoury comments" as soon as they walk onto a football pitch, according to one leading football disciplinary consultant.

Graham Bean, managing director of a consultancy which represents footballers at disciplinary hearings, said officials have experienced ridicule since football began.

He ruled out the use of courts to discipline verbally abusive players and said local Football Association authorities should deal with incidents.

However, Mr Bean, who was formally England's disciplinary enforcer during his time as the FA's compliance officer, said the game should crackdown on physical abuse.

Mr Bean is a poacher-turned-gamekeeper whose company, Barnsley-based Football Factors, represents footballers at every level who are involved in the disciplinary process.

He recently represented Birmingham City striker Clinton Morrison in his disciplinary commission hearing over a minor incident involving Bolton Wanderer's defender Nicky Hunt.

Morrison, who threw Hunt to the floor during the Blues game in January, was handed a 'formal warning' by the Football Association after admitting a charge of improper conduct.

Mr Bean said: "When the referee cross the white line on a Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning he knows he is going to be the subject of some unsavoury comments. He is putting himself in the firing line.

"This is not saying that it is right. But having in place mechanisms to take someone to court for swearing at a referee is not in the spirit of the art of refereeing.

"Since football began the referee has been the figure of ridicule and has faced abuse from the crowd.

"I think most referees accept that they will have a level of abuse from the crowd and most of them switch off to it.

"Referees also know that they are going to get abuse on the pitch but it should not get out of hand, and if it does, then they can report it to the county FA.

"On the pitch players have a responsibility to conduct themselves in the best possible way but often they do not.

"That is unfortunate but it is a social problem because for a lot of teenagers it is in their culture that swearing is normal."

Mr Bean said that he would often advise a player to "fall on his sword" if he was told by them that they had committed an offence on the pitch. Many footballers accepted their fate at commission hearings, he added.