Why is it ok to touch the ref in football

This week in rugby league (Australian hand egg) Sam Thiday got a one week suspension for tugging the shirt of a ref, this is a pic of the incident although it the pic makes it look worse then it is (ill try find a vid), article about the incident here



In all Australian sports its the norm to treat the ref with respect and not to crowd him etc, you wouldnt even see that in the a-league, but in football its pretty much the norm, why is that?

I don't think footballers touch refs?

They just crowd him to state their views. In the heat of the moment I'm sure most people would do that.

Yohan Modric wrote:I don't think footballers touch refs?

They just crowd him to state their views. In the heat of the moment I'm sure most people would do that.

ive watched rugby league for 13 years, i cant remember seeing a ref crowded once ever. ffs when Cleverly got his yellow card against Chelsea half an hour ago Jones (i think) touched the ref on the chest

if a dude with four shoulders starts touching you, you wouldn't be pleased as well

I have no idea why it is accepted but it shouldnt be

Should be an automatic yellow IMO

halamadrid2 wrote:touching the reff is a way to be on good terms with them like you touch your teammates and opposition players. United/Chelea players did that alot in their game and look how smooth the game went. reff happy, players happy and coachrs happy

compare it to Spain where touching a reff could give you a yellow card and you can see the difference in relationship between players and referees

now this is totally different from four or five playere running up to the referee and pushing him from side to side almost like this year 11 bully against a year 7 newbie in the school ground.... I hate when players crowd the reff if there has been a bad decision only the captain should go forward or a senior trusted player

a pat on the shoulder as you pass by is very different from what we're talking about imo. in american sports, any contact with the ref that isn't CLEARLY friendly is an automatic suspension, and that doesn't result in a hostile relationship at all. it shows that the referees are protected and require respect, and is fairly successful. you see a much better attitude toward wrong decisions simply in terms of on-court action - no crowding, arguing generally ends quickly (dissent is also silenced very fast through other punishments). i think there are a lot of changes that need to be made in regards to questioning the ref after the game (leagues should stop treating them as infallible), but america's rules for in the moment action seem to have the right impact.