The Football Association, Premier League, Football League, Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), League Managers Association (LMA) and Professional Game Match Officials (PGMO) are working in partnership in the professional game, with the emphasis on the relationship between referees, and players and managers.
The key steps to be introduced in the Premier League and Football League are:
1. Referee managing the game, captains taking more responsibility for the behaviour of their team
Referees have been instructed to work with captains to manage the players and the game effectively. They have also been reminded of their responsibility to control the game by applying the Laws of the Game and dealing firmly with any open show of dissent by players. The instruction to referees is to stay and deal with dissent rather than moving away.
While the captain does not have any special privileges under the Laws of the Game, captains will be expected to take on more responsibility for the conduct of their team. Under the Respect programme, the referee will work with the captain to manage the players and the game effectively. The captain will act as the main contact point for the referee, and will be called over to an incident involving a team-mate even if he is some distance away.
2. Pre-match briefing meeting with referee and managers/captains
The referee will meet with the captains and managers (or a senior member of the coaching staff) at least one hour before kick-off to view the team colours, see the team-sheets but also to provide the referee with an opportunity to give a clear message of how he intends to manage the game and work with the captain to do this.
3. Team handshake before kick-off
This already happens in the Premier League and has been adopted by the Football League for the coming season.
4. Improved behaviour in the technical area
Managers/coaches/team officials should be removed to the stands if they leave the technical area to berate the match officials in breach of the Laws of the Game, or ignore the instructions of the Fourth Official to return to the bench after giving instructions and having a suitable amount of time to see if they have been carried out.
In addition, there will be no TV monitors in the technical areas at any level of the game. This is expressly prohibited by Premier League rules, which were amended in June this year, followed by a blanket ban from the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the body responsible for the Laws of the Game.