Get on with the game!

The kick-off of the Premier League season is now less than 24 hours away. As expected, four of the more experienced referees have been given the four TV games. Howard Webb will blow the opening whistle of the Premier League season at the Emirates tomorrow, with Alan Wiley taking the trip to the north-east for Sunderland's evening clash with Liverpool. On Sunday, Mike Dean heads to Stamford Bridge for Chelsea's opener, with Mike Riley at Old Trafford for Manchester United's clash with Newcastle. Four experienced performers there who should get the season off to a good start. I hope that the two newcomers, Mike Jones and Stuart Attwell, will get Premier League appointments soon.

Meanwhile, the Premier League have launched their Get on with the Game campaign, adding support to the FA's Respect agenda. It is along roughly the same lines - encouraging discipline among players towards referees and their fellow players. The key action points of the campaign are:

• Charters signed by Chairmen, Managers and Players, agreeing that all have a shared responsibility to improve the image of the game.
• Team Captains and Senior Coaching Staff to meet with the referee before each game to set out the agenda for how the match will be controlled and build a rapport.
• Referee to use the team captain during the game to help control other players, giving warnings and so on.
• New "Get on with the Game" flag to lead the teams onto the pitch before each game.
• Official fair play handshake to continue before each game.
• TV monitors to be removed from the technical area so fourth officials and managers cannot see replays of incidents
• Three TV channels to each employ a refereeing expert to provide a referees' perspective on key incidents. The three experts are Dermot Gallagher for Sky, Paul Durkin for the BBC, and PGMO General Manager Keith Hackett for Setanta.

Overall, I think this is a positive campaign. Pure publicity stuff like the Charter, fair play flag and handshake are mere formalities, and will probably not make too much difference. However, the adjustment to how referees control the game, using the captains, should hopefully help to reduce incidents where players have a go at the referee. The presence of TV monitors in the technical area has been a problem for referees for some time, making it difficult to control managers, so that is a good move to get rid of them. The best idea of them all (in my opinion) is the allocation of the three refereeing experts to the TV channels. Three respected figures who can provide a referees' perspective on matters should help to improve the image of refereeing. However, we have to see the experts used properly, given a chance to have their say, and not just brought out once in a blue moon. For the experts, they cannot merely support the referee in every case, otherwise they will lose credibility. So, there are some conditions for the scheme to work, but if it does it should be a very positive addition.

It is good to see action from the very top of the game, encouraging more respect and trying to improve the game's image. How this actually translates to what happens on the pitch remains to be seen. Lets hope that, when Howard Webb blows the first whistle tomorrow, the players get on with the game!