NOVEMBER 3 ― Every now and then, we hear impassioned complaints about how footballers should learn from their rugby playing counterparts in terms of the respect they show towards referees.

This is especially the case in England where rugby and football are part of the old class divide: rugby belongs to the upper class public school elite, and football is a game for the commoners.

According to the narrative, football players fake fouls and argue with referees because they are uneducated and ill-mannered yobs, whereas rugby players have been brought up properly and are therefore able to respect the authority of match officials even when they are wrong.

This tired old theme has been rolled out again on several occasions in recent weeks due to the staging of the Rugby World Cup, which was won at the weekend by New Zealand in a convincing victory in the final against neighbours Australia.

On one hand, it is perfectly true that rugby players do indeed show much greater levels of respect towards referees than footballers: rugby simply does not contain scenes of angry gesticulation and outright disobedience which are tediously commonplace in football.

Rather than surrounding match officials and getting in their faces, rugby players are able to accept decisions and get on with the game ― a much more pleasant attitude, I fully agree.

However, the traditional explanation that rugby players behave in this manner because they have better manners than footballers is quite simply absolute garbage.

In fact, footballers are prone to carrying on like moaning, disobedient children for a more straightforward reason: because they can.

In rugby, any sign of dissent towards officials or bad sportsmanship is immediately punished with the award of a penalty to the opposition. And if the complaints continue, the referee applies an additional ten-yard punishment.

At the very least, this concedes a significant territorial advantage, an essential aspect of a positional game such as rugby. And at worst, a penalty allows the opposition to score three points.

In football, a certain level of dissent is regarded as commonplace, normal and even expected, rarely drawing censure from the match officials and, if any punishment is forthcoming, it is generally limited to the (generally unimportant) brandishing of a yellow card.

For footballers, therefore, there is little deterrent to arguing with the official. If a free-kick has already been awarded, why not get in his face, yell and scream and let out your frustration in the hope that he will be intimidated into giving more favourable decisions in the future?

What’s the worst that can happen? No further punishment will follow, with the occasional exception of a yellow card which doesn’t really matter anyway. It’s not like rugby, where a show of dissent will give significantly hinder your team’s chances of winning the game.

The same applies to other sports. Basketball and American Football, for example, contain stiff penalties for any dissent towards officials. Therefore, those sports do not witness much dissent towards officials…it’s pretty straightforward, and has nothing to do with the players’ levels of education or sophistication (which, without being rude, isn’t always particularly high in American sports).

So if we really want to stop footballers being rude to referees, it would be a pretty easy thing to do and it has nothing to do with encouraging players to adopt the fair-minded attitudes of rugby players.

Simply do this: upon any show of dissent, the opposition is awarded a free kick on the edge of the penalty area. Immediately, every time, and without fail.

This would give the opposition a genuine chance to score a goal and would therefore significantly endanger your team’s chances of winning the match. Believe me, if that happened, the whingeing would soon stop.

It has nothing to do with education or class, and everything to do with punishment and deterrence.

Football has already seen how this kind of thing works. In the past, violent tackles from behind, kicking the calves or ankles of players receiving possession, were habitual. FIFA wanted to eradicate those dangerous challenges from the game in order to protect creative players, so they introduced a consistently applied rule that they would be met with a yellow card.

And now, lo and behold, those type of challenges are rarely seen because players know exactly what will happen if they do.

So, to change the behaviour of players, we don’t need to educate them or bang on about principles of fair play. Simply change the rules.

Sadly, however, such a measure would have to be implemented ― as was the yellow card for tackles from behind ― by the game’s global governing body, FIFA. And while they’re preoccupied with deciding how crooked Sepp Blatter really is, it’s unlikely that much will get done anytime soon.

*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.