City Sentinel: Respect? FA must set the standard

Sentinel sports editor Keith Wales has his say on events at Stoke City

HOW can the FA expect players, managers and fans to sign up to their Respect campaign when they undermine it so completely themselves?

Stoke skipper Andy Griffin was on stage when the initiative was launched to such fanfare just before the start of the current season.

Yet the FA proved this week they hold City players in contempt when they refused to charge Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger over his claim that Ryan Shawcross and Rory Delap had deliberately set out to injure his players during the Gunners' 2-1 defeat at the Brit.

For years, the FA have used the accusation of 'bringing the game into disrepute' to effectively gag players and managers not prepared to be landed with a substantial fine.

To do such a thing in the real world would have human rights lawyers rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of a routine victory in the courts, yet the football authorities get away with it. But what can be more disreputable than a manager effectively calling the players of an opposing team cheats?

I'd have thought the FA had got Wenger bang to rights, as they say, yet they took no action after studying his comments.

Just for the record, Wenger said: "Do you think Delap tried to play the ball when he tackled (Theo) Walcott? Or that Shawcross tried to play the ball when he tackled (Emmanuel) Adebayor off the pitch? The players have been injured deliberately."

It's unequivocal. Nothing could be more black and white, but the FA seem more intent on snuffing out criticism of referees than protecting the integrity of players.

The basic flaw in the FA's Respect campaign is the fact respect has to be earned.

Managers are not going to respect referees they regard as incompetent, however much they are told to do so. And few Stoke fans are going to respect an organisation that allows a high-profile manager to call their players cheats and then turn a deaf ear to his comments just as effectively as Wenger has done to his own players' disciplinary failings over the years.

Because of this, there will be the suspicion in some quarters that the FA were never going to act against a senior figure in the game when the club in question is a Premier League gatecrasher.

In truth, the fact neither Stoke, nor the players in question were prepared to take the issue further probably influenced the FA.

But there are times when the people who supposedly run the game have to take a lead. This was one of them.