The chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) has called for referees to make greater use of captains in order to cut down on the amount of two-footed tackles.
Gordon Taylor believes the spate of bad challenges over the last few weeks is indicative of a lack of respect between players, and thinks captains should play a bigger role in preventing wild tackles by communicating more frequently with referees before and during games.
"We know the game has got faster and it's even faster in this country," he said.
"There needs to be a respect between fellow professionals and for the opposition.
"The FA are having a respect campaign for referees and we want referees to make better use of captains - to make it clear to them certain things they are not going to stand for and for him to tell his team."
Ricardo Carvalho, Brynjar Gunnarsson, Robbie Keane, Didier Zokora, Stephen Ireland and Peter Crouch have all been sent off recently for two-footed lunges.
However, the Professional Game Match Officials Board, the referees' representative body, has denied there has been an enforced clampdown on two-footed tackles and has insisted that referees are merely applying the law as it has always stood.
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21 October 2010
21 October 2010
21 October 2010
20 October 2010
20 October 2010
