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The wave of yellow cards
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AP Photo/Tom Hevezi
There was an interesting article in The Guardian a day or two ago. For any of you who saw the Manchester United/Chelsea game on Sunday, referee Mike Riley got an earful all game long and dealt out a sea of yellow cards against the Reds, including several for dissent.
Some might argue that the plethora of cards in part came from the extremely tight game that Riley called right from the start, but the issue at hand here is whether the campaign started this season to respect referees (which was backed by each Premier League team) is already struggling.
Whether it was a cocky wave of the finger from Cristiano Ronaldo or Rio Ferdinand ending the match by berating Riley, there was certainly little respect in this game. And to be honest, perhaps it will take several games like this one for players to finally shut up and realize that accumulating a yellow card simply isn’t worth their time. To draw a comparison to the U.S., a couple years ago the NBA started the season with extremely strict rules about talking to officials. The result was an early-season wave of technical fouls, but perhaps it did help a little bit in the long run.
Regardless of what you think, most everyone watching the games would surely appreciate a little more football being played instead of a mob surrounding the ref after every little call.
What do you think, is the Respect campaign working this year? Was Riley right to dish out all those cards? Do refs need to keep giving out yellows until players tone it down a little?
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