This thread has been an interesting one in many respects and I have paid particular attention to it such as my bias.
I hear the 'you shouldn't tolerate that abuse ref, just card them' and then I have 9 yellow cards for dissent and am accused of ruining/killing the game and 'its not about you ref'.
I hear the 'you only gave them the free kick cause he went down.' and in some cases, yeah - cause I believe it or not, I want you to stay on your feet, I want to play advantage for your team so you can create goals and I play my part in facilitating that.
I hear the 'you have to stop this diving nonsense ref' from players that are the 1st to moan when someone else goes down easily yet they do it themselves without thought.
I hear the 'you have to stop this holding in the penalty area at corners' and then we are giving away cheap penalties that are game changers but thats our fault.
Ultimately, the respect for the game and the officials must come voluntarily from the players. Why can't the above 4 points be enacted by the players voluntarily? From there, things will improve dramatically whereby there wont be the consistent 'bugger that being a ref, I couldn't handle the abuse'. Then you have a larger talent pool to select from and the quality is theorectically better. Hence the respect program and it only requires everyone to take it seriously. If you have a larger pool of candidates to select for an opening at your work, in theory, you should have a better calibre of candidate.
We are responsible for educating and training ourselves just like players are, but if you are expecting someone to do extra training over and above what they do (some do heaps and some do none) then ask yourself if you are prepared to do the same. After all, we are all participants in the same game so everyone should be held to the standard which is directly correlatable to the level they are at.
I leave you with this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle and it applies to refereeing as well.
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