EVERY time I hear of a young footballer dishing out abuse to a referee during a Sunday park game, or a junior coach swearing at an official in front of his team, it makes me wonder just who should be held responsible?

We’re lucky enough to have the most exciting domestic football anywhere on the planet here in England.

Role models go out there every weekend, adored by millions and the whole world is jealous of what we have got. But are we protecting it? I don’t think so.

Look at the behaviour of some top footballers and managers nowadays and ask yourself if they are really setting an example you’d want your child to follow?

Referees are being surrounded and intimidated every time they make a decision, fourth officials are being snarled at, everyone seems to be grabbing, pushing and pulling each other. It’s madness.

The stakeholders are reluctant to step in and take action. Bodies like the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) are like the Scarlet Pimpernel, they say nothing.

This last few weeks we’ve seen a few occasions where players have reacted to a decision and confronted a referee en masse. The FA are able to charge clubs with failing to control their players, but it seldom happens.

As a referee you have a decision to make, sometimes you have to stay focused, ignore what’s going on around you and base your actions purely on what you know is right. That means you can often be unaware of how many players are buzzing around you, waving their arms and shouting.

Take Michael Oliver, for example; he had a fantastic game the other week when Manchester United played Arsenal but there’s still a bit of me that wished he’d given a straight red to Angel Di Maria when he grabbed at his shirt.

That would have allowed a longer ban and a real message to be sent out that this kind of thing will not be tolerated.

Until we start taking serious action it will continue to percolate down to grassroots football until the kids just don’t know any better.

People ask how you stop it? Well that’s simple.

I’ve said before we need a panel of ex-managers, ex-players, ex-officials sitting on a Monday morning and reviewing this kind of thing. It’s something that works in Scotland and it can do here too.

If there has been a big flashpoint then retrospective punishment should be dished out – not to the clubs, but to the individual players, even if we’re taking four or five at a time.

If that doesn’t work then start taking points. That’ll get the club’s attention.

It’s okay having passion but I think sometimes managers and players need to look themselves in the mirror and wonder whether they are taking this all too seriously?

There are much worse things going on out there than losing a football match – people go through much tougher things than getting sent off, or being flagged offside.

These people are role models to young footballers and it’s about time they started acting like it.

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SOMEONE down at refereeing body, the PGMOL, needs an atlas because they seem to be struggling with geography at the moment.

Why on earth has Martin Atkinson been appointed to referee the Liverpool v Manchester United game when he is travelling all the way to Sevilla in midweek on European duty?

It is one of the biggest games of the season, which could mean millions when you look at Champions League qualification, and we’re asking him to be at his best after flying back from Spain not 48 hours earlier. It’s mad.

I’ve already raised concerns about Martin’s performance levels after coming back from Europa League games, and I can totally understand how taxing all the travelling can be on your body.

But what has me scratching my head is that we have Mike Dean – a referee in excellent form and based not far away in North Wales – unable to officiate.

He used to live in the Wirral, and is a big Tranmere Rovers fan, but I can’t see why that should render him unavailable for a Liverpool game.

Chris Foy is similar – he’s based in St Helens, 10-15 minutes down the road from both cities, and yet he’s not permitted to take charge either.

I’m already puzzled why Anthony Taylor, an Altrincham fan who lives locally, can referee the Newcastle United v Manchester United game the other week.

United’s reserves have played at Alty plenty of times and that’s a little too close for comfort in my book.

Imagine what Jose Mourinho would say if Taylor made a mistake refereeing United v Chelsea? You’d never get him off the TV!

I’m not for one second questioning impartiality, or even Martin Atkinson’s ability to referee Liverpool v Manchester United to the best of his ability but surely the powers that be should start making it a little easier for their officials to do their job?