New Rules: You Swear, You’re Off

By: Daryl | February 20th, 2008

Horden chaieman The English FA are backing a zero tolerance approach to swearing, meaning any player or manager using words their mum wouldn’t approve of gets an instant red card. The plan is to stamp out swearing altogether, but Wayne Rooney – who only knows the bad words and has a knack for saying them while the camera’s on – can relax for now. Arngrove Northern League Division Two is the first and only league in England to give this a go, and it’s unlikely Manchester United will be playing there any time soon.

But Northern League chairman Mike Amos is hoping a successful trial will see the practice spread:

I hope it will be a first step towards reclaiming the game from the foul mouthed yobs that increasingly are driving good people – spectators, volunteers and match officials – away from football. I’m delighted that the FA has agreed to back us – it could be a momentous day in the history of non-league football. There’s still a long way to go and a lot to be done, but the tide of verbal sewage with which paying spectators are greeted could at last be about to turn.

Once you’ve got that “tide of verbal sewage” image out of your head, it’s worth giving this some serious thought. The sort of abuse given out to referees and linesman is nothing short of disgraceful, and it’s probably time something was done. Not sure this blanket ban on bad words is that way to go though.

Norman Stephens, chairman of Arngrove Northern League Division Two side Horden makes the excellent point that “most of the swearing isn’t aimed at anyone but is just frustration.” I know if I played in Arngrove Northern League Division Two I’d be sent off every time one of my wayward shots went into near-earth orbit.

Alex Ferguson seems half-way behind the idea, but for some reason feels that only youth and amateur football should get the clampdown. “It is harder at the higher levels,” he says. “Trying to cut out bad language there is like trying to get rid of it from a factory or a shop floor … But yes we need to try to eliminate the swearing from boys’ football and Sunday football.”

Maybe Fergie doesn’t want a certain star striker to be suspended every other week? I’d have to agree with Graham Fisher on SoccerLens here, who disagrees with Fergie:

I’m not sure why it is important to stamp out swearing in park game between two hungover pub sides in front of one man and his dog, but not so important in a Premier League game in front of 70,000 people and millions worldwide looking at close up shots of the players reactions.

Surely the real problem isn’t swearing, it’s abuse. There’s a big difference between yelling out in frustration because your shooting boots aren’t properly calibrated, and calling a linesman the c-word. Seems to me that a blanket ban is going too far.