Respect the ref!

The ongoing furore over dissent on the football pitch has led to the highlighting of a four-year-old Birmingham Mail campaign this week.

'Respect the Ref' was launched in the middle of the 2004 season at a time when Birmingham County FA were concerned about the rising number of red cards and assaults on referees. We had discussions with them about what could be done and the idea of the campaign was born.

The Birmingham Mail has long carried a midweek supplement on junior football and amateur and minority sports, and this seemed the obvious home for such a campaign.

With the launch, 5,000 A2 posters were produced and sent to every club in the county area while Mike Fellows, the county FA discipline manager, and sports writer Roger Clarke, who ran the midweek section, worked together to develop the campaign.

The details of any alleged assaults on referees or trouble at matches involving referees was reported in detail in the midweek section. And when a disciplinary hearing had been held, the names of players banned for assaults or improper behaviour towards match officials were published in a scroll of shame along with their club, league and length of ban and fines.

The message was simple: assault a referee and there would be nowhere to hide.

Recently the FA nationally has been launching schemes for zero tolerance to improve behaviour at football matches amid falling levels of retention of referees and increasing numbers of assaults and crowd problems, particularly at youth and children's matches.

Four years on and without any multi-million pound scheme, the Mail's campaign has helped Birmingham County FA to achieve the highest referee retention rate in the country, with a falling number of assaults and a thriving junior soccer scene.

All we need now is the extension of the scheme into the Premier League to make self-obsessed professionals 'Respect the Ref'.

And perhaps this is not just a dream scenario. On Monday this week Sky News came to the Birmingham Mail offices having heard via the FA the results of the campaign. The result will be a feature piece used on its channels in the next week or so.

Let's hope the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson and Wayne Rooney are watching...