Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou has gone on recored to admit that attitudes and behavior of both players and managers towards referees in the top flight need to improve.
After having been booked for the first time in his football managerial career when Spurs lost at home to Chelsea earlier this month, Postecoglou was asked by Mail Sport if players and managers need to do better and the former Celtics boss replied: “Yes, 100 per cent. I was embarrassed for being booked, even if it wasn’t for abuse. It was for leaving the technical area.
“Anyone who has been in the game any length of time will tell you we have all experienced a bad decision — something goes against us — and also benefited from it. We have understood that’s part of our game. That’s the beauty of our game. There are flaws in it because we are dealing with human beings.
“If I take that another step back and think about the junior playground where young referees are trying to do it, what are they going to do and what are they going to see? ‘There does need to be some addressing of behavior along the way. It’s easy for me to say but I have to live it and make sure I set that example.
“I am as competitive as anyone. I want to win. I hate it when a decision goes against me and it costs me a game. But at some point you have to respect the officials of the game. Otherwise, what’s the point?
“I think VAR has played a role,” he added.
“We have diminished the role of the official, almost made their jobs impossible.
“Now I am thinking about referees going out on to a field of play not having the authority they used to. Because every decision gets questioned.
“Our game is now refereed externally. So as an official, how are you supposed to have any authority over the players?
“We as managers have a responsibility to set an example.
“More broadly, I don’t like where we are taking the game in terms of that part of it.”