At one point during Sunday’s League Cup Final between Chelsea and Tottenham, Spurs defender Danny Rose turned to referee Anthony Taylor and mouthed “you fucking cunt.” 

That kind of language has become acceptable for officials in football to face and there would be some who argue that they deserve it.

Giving penalties when players have clearly dived. Chalking off goals for offsides when the whole world can see that the left-back played the striker on. The referee is scum and that’s the way it always will be.

But they aren’t. They have the toughest job on the pitch. Trying to keep all 22 players on the field while appeasing the thousands of supporters in attendance who are waiting for the smallest mistake in order to hound and hurl abuse at them.

Sometimes it doesn’t even get to that. Fans have an amazing memory and will recall a penalty or a foul that wasn’t given their way months ago from a referee in charge.

You hear it on the train to matches or in the pub before kick-off. 

Groups of people talking about how their team won’t get any decisions today because the referee is useless and failed to spot something that happened last time he took charge of one their games. Four seasons ago.

Football fans expect referees to be perfect. To get every decision right yet reward their team with penalties in order to secure the three points.

Referees should be like children. They should be seen and not heard. Or so they say. But mistakes will be made and the way the media has responded has led to those decisions showing up more and more on the back pages.

There have been cases of mistaken identity. Arsenal’s Kieran Gibbs and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain last season and Wes Brown and John O’Shea last weekend.

There are always players getting away with horror challenges which clearly deserve red cards. Burnley’s Ashley Barnes on Chelsea’s Nemanja Matic is the most recent and was all over the news, especially as Matic was the player sent off and will miss two games for the Blues.

But there is a place where the people in charge are given the respect they deserve by players. That place is youth football.

Children are not allowed to swear at the referee or argue with the decision or they are booked, in some cases sent off. But as they get older it changes.

They see their parents mouthing off and realise they too can get away with it. 

We need to bring that level of respect back into the adult game. It happens in other sports, such as rugby and basketball, so why can’t it happen in football?

Is it because in rugby the refs wear microphones and cameras and have cameras so any foul language or dissent is available for everyone to see? Is it down to the rules? In both of those sports if you are abusive to the referee you are kicked out the game for the remainder of the match?.

I am a firm believer in taking the best aspects of other sports and integrating them into another if it improves the game. In the case of football, video technology to help referees would be a good start.

The sport has been able to integrate goal-line technology without a fuss and fans can’t imagine football without it. The argument that it will slow the game down is nonsense. 

And even if it does, wouldn’t you much rather have the game delayed by a couple of seconds if it meant your team were given a penalty which the referee initially missed?

It is a shame that the Dutch FA’s video technology trial has been delayed by 12 months but it isn’t surprising. Fifa were reluctant to introduce goal-line technology and refuse to use it in their major competitions, instead adopting the five officials system.

But football is being left in the ice age because of bigwigs higher up living in the dark ages.

If we aren’t going to help referees by bringing in video assistants then at least introduce the rule that if you talk back to the referee it’s a yellow card. Swear at the referee? An automatic red. 

Even if players are scared of the referee to the point where respect is earned that way, it’s better than the situation we find ourselves in now.

This culture of surrounding officials after decisions needs to end. Players of other sports wouldn’t dare question a referee’s judgement. It needs to become the norm in football.

On a very simple level, referees are humans who ought to be treated as such. Is respecting them too much to ask?