Players and managers who abuse referees will have nowhere to hide this season after the most powerful men in football announced yesterday that they were determined to clean up the game.

Shocking images of Ashley Cole treating Mike Riley with contempt during Chelsea’s 4-4 draw with Tottenham Hotspur last season and Javier Mascherano abusing Steve Bennett during Liverpool’s 3-0 defeat by Manchester United were the final straw for the FA, which unveiled new measures to get tough on bad behaviour yesterday.

From this Saturday, when the Football League season kicks off, referees will stamp out dissent by applying the letter of the law and managers who misbehave in the technical area will be sent to the stands if they do not sit down and shut up. Instead of backing away from trouble, referees have been instructed to deal with it by confronting it head-on.

“We don’t want to see a repeat of some of the things we have seen over the past 12 months,” Richard Scudamore, the Premier League chief executive, said. “We all have a responsibility to deal with these excesses.”

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Showing a united front at the launch of the Respect programme in London yesterday, Lord Triesman, the FA chairman, Brian Barwick, the FA chief executive, Gordon Taylor, the Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive, Andy Williamson, the chief operating officer of the Football League, Richard Bevan, the chief executive of the League Managers Association, and Scudamore said that enough was enough.

“We have to put our own house in order,” Triesman said. “We have reached the tipping point and there will be serious risks to the health of the game if we do not take action.”

From Saturday, and before every match this season, referees will have a meeting with the captains and managers of each team one hour before kick-off to explain how they are planning to manage the game.

Referees have been told to make it clear whether they want to be called “ref” or by their name during matches and captains will be reminded that they are responsible for the behaviour of their team.

The FA considered introducing a new rule that would have meant that only captains could talk to a referee during games, but the proposal was rejected after objections from officials during a pilot programme in 19 lower leagues last season. Instead, referees have been instructed to work closely with captains to manage the players and the game more effectively.

“Referees will not run away from dissent,” Neale Barry, the FA’s head of senior referee development and a former top-flight official, said. “They will stand their ground and deal with confrontation. Some will have to change their mindsets.”

Triesman became the FA’s first independent chairman in January and the former politician, who used to referee at semi-professional level, is determined to make his mark. “The first time a player verbally abused me, I told them that I would send him off if he did it again, so he stopped doing it,” Triesman said. “There is a very good case for telling people very early on what you are going to do. In all my years of refereeing, I only ever sent one player off — for constant foul and abusive language.”

There are 26,000 referees in England, but about 7,000 walk away from the game every year because of abuse, stress and pressure. “We have seen television images that we cannot accept,” Triesman said. “Without getting it out of proportion, we have to say that it is enough. This is the point where we have to change.”

It is not all doom and gloom.

England finished top of Uefa’s Fair Play rankings last season and as a reward, Manchester City were granted a place in the Uefa Cup. According to the European governing body, English teams set the standard for positive play and showing respect to opponents and officials. Respect is due.

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