WHAT about a kind word for the most maligned of people, the football referee.

He and his assistants are possibly the only neutral people on the field.

The two sets of supporters, the press, TV and managers (many of them hard men in their day), seize upon every fault, highlighting possible mistakes over and over again.

The camera has a different view from the official. Much of the common-sense decisions have been taken out of their hands by various FIFA rulings.

Maybe instead of knocking the ref, we could help him with the technology available, similar to cricket and rugby league where vital decisions can be sorted out in quick time.

Goal-line incidents and serious foul play could be covered with the fourth official.

Maybe a "sin bin" could be introduced, making offenders cool off.

If the goalkeeper handled outside the penalty box, an innovation would be to make his team play for maybe 10 minutes short-handed.

Any action not quite bad enough for the red card could mean a player being put on report. A video could be viewed later to decide the punishment.

I've always had the view that a ref would have a good game if it flowed fairly and all 22 finished the game.

It may only work in the Premier League due to the cost, but maybe it's worth a try.

K SOWERBUTTS (Mr), Southwood Drive, Baxenden.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.