UEFA president Michel Platini believes last weekend's sending off of Javier Mascherano was the "right thing" and has backed the Football Association's clampdown on dissent.
The Liverpool midfielder was sent off after confronting referee Steve Bennett in the Reds' 3-0 defeat at Manchester United last Sunday - his dismissal coming just days after the outrage generated by Ashley Cole's behaviour towards Mike Riley, who did not red card the Chelsea left-back.
The FA has launched a campaign to promote respect to referees in the amateur game, and it appears that a more hard-line stance has now been adopted by professional officials.
Platini believes it is not before time and has predicted that when the initial controversy dies down, players will soon get used to keeping their mouths shut.
"The decision of the English FA to insist on showing yellow cards to any players arguing with referees in amateur games is a good one," Platini told the Mail on Sunday.
"It's something that should have been done 40 years ago. The referees have the backing of the rules to do this."
He added: "Mascherano got a yellow card for running at the referee, which is correct. He won't do it again now. What the referee did was good, it was the right thing to give him the second yellow card.
"We have to make sure the referees are respected. Of course the players don't like it at first but they won't do it a second time and if it means other players learn to restrain themselves, that's a good thing."
According to Platini then Mascherano got a 'deserved' yellow card for 'running at the referee'. Could somebody please find in the FA guidelines where this is a punishable offence.
I watched MOTD last night and counted around 14 instances (and that was just the highlights) where either fouled players raised their hands as Torres did as if to say 'For F**k's sake' or where players 'ran at the referee'.
It's a joke.
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