Outrage as FA tells grassroots football league to give up anti-swearing campaign

Foul language blights the sport from the Premiership right down to the grassroots game and so one would imagine that football's governing body would approve of a recent initiative by a lowly regional league to curb their players swearing.

However, the FA has ordered a grassroots football league to abandon its zero-tolerance initiative on swearing.

Players in the Arngrove Northern League (ANL) second division would have been shown a straight red card - within the existing laws of the game - for gratuitous swearing as part of the experiment for the 2008-9 season.

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The initiative was to be pioneered by 20 amateur leagues - and it was hoped it could be extended to the Premiership if it was successful.

It came amid growing criticism from parents and campaign groups that youngsters were copying Premiership stars who appeared to escape censure for foul and abusive behaviour.

The scheme was approved by the FA referees' committee last month and a meeting with senior FA officials had been arranged to discuss how it could be implemented and monitored.

But ANL chairman Mike Amos said that the FA board appeared to have overruled its referees' committee and the league has been ordered to put the experiment "on hold".

"I don't know about swearing, but I could literally weep," said Mr Amos. "It's yet another kick in the teeth to the game at our level from the very people who are supposed to promote and safeguard it."

The FA wants to evaluate its own Respect campaign over the next five years. This operates at youth level in pilot areas across the UK and is aimed principally at eliminating abuse of referees.

The original decision to authorise a "zero-tolerance" initiative - which attracted interest from other leagues - promoted a huge national debate.

Mr Amos said he was devastated by the decision.

"We were trying to wrest the game back from the foul-mouthed individuals, both on the field and in dugouts, who have driven away spectators and families in such numbers.

"The FA decision effectively gives players the nod to carry on effing and blinding at full volume and to weak match officials to turn a deaf ear to it.

"Decent people are sickened by the full-blast obscenities which they hear at football matches and are being driven away in droves.

"The FA's appalling decision - however well intended - will accelerate that drift well beyond the point of no return. It is a very black day for football at our level. I despair at our leaders."

Mr Amos said referees already had the power to send players off for swearing - Law 12. But he said referees had allowed players to get away with a simple ticking off for so long that it had become part of the game.

He said: "We are doing everything we can to keep grassroots football alive and well.

"We realise it will never be as popular as it was in its heyday in the 1950s but we are fighting to keep people involved and to keep people coming to the games; families with children. "I have lost count of the number of times people have complained to me that they have stopped going to games because they have been put off by the language coming from both on and off the field.

"Often they will be sat behind the managers dugout and they have to listen to 90 minutes of swearing from the dugout, from parents and spectators, and from the players on the pitch.

"I can swear with the best of them but I would not expect people to have to pay to listen to me.

"For some time referees have allowed foul language to be used both on and off the field and it has become a real problem.

"If the referees regarded the laws of the game in as cavalier a fashion as they do the laws that govern offensive language then the game would descend into chaos.

"Red carding the guilty players would have sent a clear message that it would no longer be tolerated.

"The FA has cancelled the initiative because it has said it wants to examine how its own Respect campaign will work but that is a red herring as Respect applies only to youth teams. I think the reality is it has simply changed its mind.

"It is demoralising and depressing. The result will be the game will get it's comeuppance in that people will stay away.

"The least we could expect from the FA was a little support but it has as good as said it does not matter - carry on swearing."

An FA spokesman said: "The proposal asking for permission to carry out this experiment next season was submitted by the Arngrove Northern League to the Referees Committee.

"The ANL wanted to report back at the end of next season as to whether it had been a success.

"But in the interests of uniformity around the country, we have asked them to put the zero tolerance initiative on hold for the time being.

"The initiative may be considered in the future, but it has been put on hold in order that the FA can measure tangibly the effect the Respect campaign has.

"Respect seeks to address standards of behaviour both on and off the field, and has been rolled out following a consultation process which has involved more than 30,000 people as part of the FA's national games strategy for grass roots football.

"We are absolutely committed addressing this problem, we just want to do it as part of a co-ordinated programme rolled out across the board."