Mario Says the Respect is There

Wigan Athletic skipper Mario Melchiot speaking on Saturday mornings Eamonn Holmes show on BBC Radio 5 told how he sees the new 'Respect` regime in football working to the advantage of both referees and players.

Team captains are now allowed to talk to the referees during games about decisions being made and ask for reasons and clarification on these decisions, hopefully making for better understanding between officials and players

Melchiot said that there has been a turn around and that as captain the referee will actually listen to his views and give his reasons for making decisions, where as before the 'Respect` regime was introduced he was just told to go away like all the other players.

The Latics skipper gave an example of having a Wigan player booked for an offence just like one committed by an opposition player, when Melchiot brought this to the referees attention the ref explained that the Latics player had committed the offence twice and if the opposition player did it again they would also get booked, which indeed they did.

Melchiot said that this rapport hadn`t always been available and you could find yourself in hot water challenging decisions to award free-kicks though he did admit that at times he can go on a bit when talking to the ref.


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