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The campaign for respect for referees is targeted at managers and players, but, Michael Whalley wonders, wouldn’t it be better directed at broadcasters such as Andy Gray and Eamonn Holmes?

Sky Sports News – the channel that only considers sporting events to be truly newsworthy if they have the rights to show them – was a bit stuck during the Olympics. But on the day American swimmer Michael Phelps won a record-equalling ninth gold medal, it cleared its afternoon schedules – so that Eamonn Holmes could talk to John Terry about respecting ­referees.

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Simon Tyers takes a look at Setanta Sports News, Sky's unthreatening rival

Watching Setanta Sports News, you are reminded of the scene in I’m Alan Partridge where, on being told by the BBC director of programming that the glut of regional police shows he has listed suggests there’s too many, Partridge suggests “that’s one way of looking at it. Another way of looking at it is, people like them, let’s make some more of them.” Sky Sports News is delivered by a combination of an authoritative father figure/elder brother type and a power-dressed blonde while information scrolls around them. Setanta has decided that the only way to improve on this is to have a go at it itself and hope nobody makes the connection.

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Respect reaction

On March 18, the FA launched a new strategy entitled “Respect”, designed in part to address bad behaviour at all levels of football. Within 24 hours, Ashley Cole was given only a yellow card for a dangerous tackle in the Spurs v Chelsea match, a punishment strongly disputed by his team‑mates. It had scarcely been mentioned in the immediate aftermath of the game, but Cole’s disrespectful reaction to referee Mike Riley soon assumed prime importance. By the time of Grand Slam Sunday three days later, the new FA chairman Lord Triesman was making personal appeals to Alex Ferguson to “show some respect” towards referees.

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The mid-season money-go-round has been and gone but who are the real winners?

You know what to expect in the new year these days. Several clubs will field weakened sides in the FA Cup. A couple of high-profile players or their agents – this year it’s Dimitar Berbatov and Nicolas Anelka – will let it be known that they are looking for a move to a club “that will match my ambition”. And a couple of managers at least will complain about the transfer window. Step forward Steve Coppell – “I cannot see the logic in it, it brings on a fire-sale mentality” – and Gary Megson who, mirroring the outlook of the Europhobes who complain about the metric system having replaced imperial weights and measures, wants to see the window challenged in court. “Football clubs are told they have to do their business in a certain time, not when they would like to do it,” said Megson, who also echoed Coppell’s view that the window helps only the biggest clubs.

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West Ham are set to avoid relegation after escaping a points deduction from the Premier League. Some Middlesbrough fans are almost as unhappy about this as those of Sheffield United. Take Harry Pearson…

All that I know about legal matters dates back to the days when I was doing a diploma in hotel management. From what I recall precedent was all-important. “But it was established in Rex versus Pettigrew, 1936, that ‘a repast of sandwich and pickles did not constitute a substantial meal and therefore the sale of beer in this instance was illegal’,” our lecturer would drone as he lead us through the bizarre intricacies of the ­British licensing laws. Strangely, however, in all the waffle that the case of West Ham, the Premier League and Carlos Tévez has generated in the national media, precedent hardly seems to have warranted a mention.

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