Fair play to FIFA for trying, but with respect, they're on very shaky ground

Attempts to inject due deference between players are admirable but are crushed by the brutal reality of the modern game.

Respect is earned and when players embrace at the final whistle, it matters. It is an expression of mutual regard for each other's performance and an acknowledgement that whatever disagreements occurred in the previous 90 minutes, they occurred in the spirit of the game.

Who an individual shakes hands with should be their own prerogative. Rarely does a player interact with all 11 opponents at full time but a handshake is extended to all deemed necessary to conclude the battle just fought.

Doing so before kick-off is a childish ceremony that has no impact in fostering greater respect and compromises the authenticity of any interaction between opponents.

The moment a pre-match handshake actually meant something, the Football Association abandoned it in the knowledge that John Terry would be snubbed by every member of the Queens Park Rangers team prior to their FA Cup tie against Chelsea last weekend.

The desire to avoid further public embarrassment is understandable, so is the sensitivity around the issue given today's hearing at West London Magistrates' Court to open the racially aggravated public order case against the Chelsea skipper.

It would also have been understandable had Ferdinand opted not to shake Terry's hand. Terry is innocent until proven guilty and will fight hard to clear his name but Ferdinand obviously believes his fellow centre-back has a case to answer. Some claimed the handshake was difficult because it could prejudice the trial? Hardly. Give the justice system and those adjudicating more respect (there's that word again).

The problem is, it is always more of a story when players do not actually shake hands - think Wayne Bridge and Terry or ­William Gallas and Samir Nasri - but that does not mean forcing them to come together is any more desirable.

FIFA are tackling the issue of respect in totally the wrong way. ­Bookending the match with ceremonial displays of ordered interaction is pointless if you simultaneously fail to consistently punish offenders during the game.

Players get away with too much these days to always be cordial with each other afterwards. The boundary between gamesmanship and cheating is increasingly blurred on a pure footballing level before any deeper concerns over racism or discrimination are considered.

FIFA's Fair Play Day highlights the misdirection devoid of reality. Insisting that everyone shakes hands before AND after the match, FIFA decreed in 2003 that: "This will bring the match full circle from beginning to end. And the players will also be sending a positive signal to the fans in the stands: despite a hard battle, friendship and fair play have been maintained. And once it is over, everyone leaves together, in many ways, as one."

Drivel. But it gets worse. "It will have a positive effect on early television interviews that often take place immediately after the final whistle. Having had a chance to calm down, there will be less danger of a player saying something in the heat of the moment that he might later regret as it may tarnish the image of football."

If FIFA had their way, then players would be skipping hand-in-hand on and off the pitch with beaming smiles, presumably to the strains of The Carpenters' Close to You while purring over each other's talents to a media banned from asking them difficult questions.

It is a sanitised view of the game that has no foundation in reality. Spain marked the last FIFA Fair Play Day in September with a 22-man brawl following their friendly against Chile. No one is listening. In truth, the only way to promote fair play is to firmly and consistently punish unfair play.

Diving, deceit, feigning injury and disrespect towards officials are all deplorable and must be addressed with a sterner hand rather than enforcing a pompous ceremony that has no ­meaning.

Respect is earned through conduct and character. A handshake from a ­fellow professional should be an honour, not an obligation.

Twitter @JamesOlley