Gordon Bennett, stop swearing!

Gordon Bennett, stop swearing! When I was quite small, I remember my mum overhearing me swear. It wasn’t a hair-raising, mouth-open-in-astonishment filthy word that we would all be ashamed of, even today. No, it was something fairly innocuous. But my mum heard it so she looked me in the eye, wagged her finger and spoke in no uncertain terms.


“If you say that again I’ll wash your mouth out with soap”.


I said: “No you won’t,” and said the word again.


When she caught me after she chased me round the house, Daz soap powder in hand, she pinned me on the floor, held my nose and when my mouth opened to take that all important breath, in went the Daz.


It was a valuable lesson because even now I never swear in front of my mother, who is in her 80s.


Wayne Rooney has a similar background to mine and I only wish his mum had washed his mouth out with soap powder when he was a lad.


Swearing in football is almost a required pastime. The “F” word is used liberally to celebrate, complain, admonish and question everything.


But, and it’s a big but, it is not acceptable to swear at officials. That’s not because they are too sensitive but because it represents a lack of respect for authority. That lack of respect carries on into the playground, Sunday football field and the classroom.


It sets a precedent for every hard-done-by 10 to 17 year old to have a go at the man, or woman, in black.


The FA and the Premier League have a Respect campaign which emphasises good behaviour but it’s useless if it is not adhered to and followed up with punishment for transgressors.


I don’t want Rooney sent off in the World Cup. I want England to win. But if our best player doesn’t respect the officials, amateur or not, then what chance have the rest of us have who are looking after young footballers up and down the land.