Friday Mar 21 2008 08:31
England coach Fabio Capello is set to discuss discipline with his players during a week when respect for referees has hit the headlines.
The hardline Italian was at White Hart Lane on Wednesday night when Chelsea full-back Ashley Cole was guilty of a high tackle on Spurs' Alan Hutton before reacting angrily to being booked by match referee Mike Riley.
Cole has apologised for 'disrespecting the referee' but his dissent came 24 hours after the Football Association launched a £200million 'Respect campaign' aimed at improving the behaviour of players from the grassroots upwards.
"He will get his message across," said the FA's director of football development Sir Trevor Brooking of Capello's plans to discuss discipline with the England squad.
"You wouldn't want a player missing out on the latter stages of a tournament for being critical. Fabio is supportive of this."
Speaking on Thursday, Cole attempted to diffuse the situation by apologising to both Hutton for the tackle and referee Riley for his dissent.
He said: "I'd like to apologise to anyone I offended and, of course, Alan Hutton.
"It wasn't malicious and I'm a little disappointed with what people are saying, that I meant it
"I'm an emotional person, things can happen on the pitch very quickly, but I didn't mean to disrespect the referee.
"I recognise this is a part of my game that I need to work on and control."
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