Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) has given his backing to the idea of having a zone around referees to stop players from abusing and insulting referees.

This idea has come after another incident involving a player showing dissent to referees. Javier Mascherano was sent off after he questioned the decision of referee Steve Bennett to give Fernando Torres a yellow card during the Liverpool – Manchester United game on Sunday.

Earlier in the week Ashley Cole was involved in an incident with Mike Riley and was booked for a bad tackle only for the left back to show dissent towards the referee.

Gordon Taylor has now called for stronger rules to stop players being able to question the referee’s decisions and stop players showing dissent towards referees.

Taylor said that he is in favor of the exclusion zones for refs. This sort of problem happens at the top level of football and at the lower levels and needs sorting out fast.

Taylor thinks that incidents like the ones that we saw last week from Ashley Cole and Javier Mascherano have no place in the game and everything must be done to stop such incidents occurring again. Taylor said that a message about stopping dissent and abuse towards referees needs to be given loud and clear to players and football clubs, and fast.