Referees must ‘take action’ and ‘draw a line in the sand’ with abuse after Erling Haaland’s outburst in the face of official Simon Hooper, Chris Sutton tells It’s All Kicking Off

Referees must ‘draw a line in the sand’ with abuse after Erling Haaland’s outburst in the face of Simon Hooper, argues Chris Sutton. 

Sutton argued that only captains should be allowed to protest against incidents with referees, an idea that has not been enforced despite being long mooted. 

Seven players – led by Haaland – surrounded Hooper when he pulled play back for a free-kick while Jack Grealish ran through towards goal in the dying moments of their 3-3 draw with Tottenham. 

Hooper had given an advantage which led to Grealish breaking beyond the defence but the referee then pulled it back, leading to their rage. 

While Sutton wants firm action immediately, Mail Sport’s football editor argued that changing attitudes would be a gradual process. 

Manchester City’s players surrounded the referee in protest against the stoppage-time call  

Chris Sutton argued that only captains should be able to protest decisions with referees

‘It doesn’t happen in rugby. Why doesn’t it happen in rugby? Because eventually there has to be a line drawn in the sand. Referees have to take action and officials have to take action,’ Sutton told Mail Sport’s podcast It’s All Kicking Off. 

‘And do you know what, in the early days, people won’t like it, there will be an outrage about it, but then eventually players will realise where the line is and they will have to stay away from the referee.’

He added: ‘This has to be the time where if you want to move forward, there has to be that element of respect, that element of control where it’s only the captain who approaches the referee, and once players know that and know where the line is, I think they will consider it.’ 

Sutton didn’t feel that much progress had been made compared to when he was a player.  

He said: ‘I’d like to think that we’re moving on, but it doesn’t look like that has been the case with respect to referees. Clearly he got lost in the moment, I totally accept that, he screamed at the referee. Would I have done it? I probably would have back then. 

‘But then Manchester City players then surrounding the referee, confronting the referee, well more than two, I think there were six, seven, it may have been the whole team, we were told that players aren’t allowed to do that this season.’

Refereeing decisions and VAR calls have been a flashpoint all season long, resulting in some horrific abuse of referees.

Haaland appeared to scream ‘F*** off! F*** off! towards Hooper, for which he was booked

Jack Grealish was through on goal when referee Hooper called it back for the foul

Mail Sport has launched a campaign to stop the abuse of referees at all levels of the game

In response, Mail Sport launched a ‘Stop Abusing Referees’ campaign which has received widespread support – most recently from FIFA’s refereeing chief Pierluigi Collina. 

Ladyman argued that the situation has been getting worse but he also felt that changing the behaviour of players requires patience and understanding of their emotions. 

He said: ‘There were so many layers to this. I would argue that [compared] to things that were in your day, we’re now trying to be better, but we’ve had 20 years of football since your day, give or take, and every season this situation has got worse and worse. 

‘So now we’ve suddenly decided that we want to row it back, we’re not just talking about us, with our stop the abuse campaign against referees, but we’re talking about the people who make the laws of the game, we’re talking about the FA, we’re talking about the Premier League, we’re talking about PGMOL, the referees’ body. 

‘We’re trying to row it back but you can’t put a steamliner into reverse just like that. It has to be a gradual process. You can’t just turn off players’ emotions like a tap and you can’t change their behaviour overnight. It has to happen by degrees.’

Ian Ladyman argued that changing attitudes is a gradual process and that: ‘You can’t just turn off players’ emotions like a tap’

Sutton argued that City wouldn’t have even been guaranteed a one-on-one situation had Hooper allowed Grealish’s attack to develop, but Ladyman understood Haaland’s tunnel vision in the moment. 

He said: ‘You can’t expect Erling Haaland to process all of that in that short amount of time. All that Haaland sees is the injustice of a referee making what I think accepts was a really poor call to first wave on the game, wave on the play, and then call it back. 

‘So if you’re Erling Haaland, or any Manchester City player, you are raging in a topsy-turvy game that you’ve essentially chucked away. They chucked the game away – we go on and on and on about Spurs and Ange Postecoglou – City should have won that game 5-2, quite comfortably with the possession and chances they had.’

Sutton hit back: ‘But then if you’re justifying the players’ acts because they are emotional, we’re going to be having this conversation every couple of weeks, aren’t we? If we’re accepting that this behaviour from players is okay… it’s not okay.’

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