STEVE COPPELL, one of the more thoughtful of football managers, believes there would be a knock-on effect throughout society if football was refereed in the same way as rugby.

He is surely right.

"To see the way officials are abused by players on a game-by-game basis, it's no wonder we have problems in society," said the Reading manager.

Yesterday, on so called Grand Slam Sunday, Manchester United's match against Liverpool was spoiled when Javier Mascherano was rightly sent off for screaming in the face of the referee.

How stupid could he be? Following the national outcry over the way Chelsea's Ashley Cole shamefully turned his back on referee Mike Ashley last week, it should have been clear that further displays of disrespect would not be tolerated.

The problem, of course, is that footballers have got away with it for too long and the Cole incident may well prove to be a watershed. People have had enough of stars, who are paid ludicrous amounts of money, behaving like yobs.

It is time for the Football Association to do something about it - not just for the sake of the national game but for the sake of the millions of youngsters who see footballers as their ultimate role models.

Football must learn from rugby and legislate so that there is a strict policy of respect for the referee, with only the team captain being able to discuss issues directly with the match official.

As Steve Coppell says, the benefits will be seen much further afield than the world of football.