Pour encourager les autres, as one of the leaders of the French Directory said about guillotining revolutionaries in the 1790s.
One of the mistakes that Mike Dean made during the Chelsea v Man Utd match two weeks ago was to allow John Terry off scot free when he physically tried to prevent him showing a red card. Terry half heartedly grabbed Dean's arm in a ridiculous gesture. Terry should have been booked at least and possibly red carded for violent conduct.
It has to be sacrosanct that players do not touch referees in any way, even jokingly.
But the FA, which is now investigating Chelsea's conduct when several players swarmed around Dean in protest at Mikel's sending-off, needs to clamp down. Chelsea and Man Utd are the two biggest sinners in pressurising referees and it appears to be well practiced that players try their best to put a referee off with a concerted display of physical pressure during moments of high tension. It's got to stop and it looks as though Chelsea may pay the price. It wouldn't surprise me if points were docked, although I suspect the sanction will be financial, i.e. pointless.
It was very difficult for Dean to follow up his red card for Mikel with more disciplinary action, but that's what he should have done.
Flashing the yellow card at all four Chelsea players who surrounded him would have done the trick and would have sent a clear message to all players not to use these tactics to intimidate the ref.
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