I have followed football on all levels for more years than I care to think about and have watched the game change as the decades have passed.

I have served as a club president of a State League level club in Australia and before that a qualified referee at non-league level. I also held the post of general manager in a football association in the great southern land, so I guess I have a little bit of experience and knowledge in the area.

I remember the days of Norman Hunter at Leeds (the crowd carried signs saying ‘Norman Bites Yer Leg’), of Vinnie Jones (who holds the record for the fastest booking in history at just three seconds during an FA Cup match in 1992) and Joey Barton (sent off six times in the Premier League – five of which were straight reds). Probably the greatest rivalry of this type was between Man Utd’s Roy Keane and Arsenal’s Patrick Viera and we could wax lyrical about the behaviour of these guys during their playing careers.
It was following this era that the FA and Premier League attempted to stop some of the really bad tackles by applying changes to the rules over a period of years, These related to players jumping into tackles, tackling from behind, and even foul language used at officials, although that one appears to have had very little effect given the easy-to-read lip reading of a player looking at a referee recently after the ref had awarded a throw in the (apparently) wrong way with the word “you R...