Referees have reportedly been told to take a hard line with players waving imaginary yellow cards in their faces as the game tries to understand the dispute.
Mail Sport launched a campaign this week to rid the game of the appalling treatment of referees, from grassroots football to the Premier League, and the FA has its backing.
But there has to be buy-in from players on the field and according to Telegraphhead of referees Howard Webb wants to see severe punishments for any player or manager seen waving imaginary cards to try and get an opponent booked.
There have been incidents this season where players have pretended to give a card in front of a referee and got away with it.
An example was in Tottenham’s clash with Liverpool when Spurs defender Destiny Udogie, who had already been booked, was spared a sending-off by referee Simon Hooper when he appeared to be in breach of the imaginary card directive.
Other players have not been so lucky, with Liverpool midfielder Alexis McAllister among the players booked for the gesture this season.
Now Webb has reportedly stressed the importance of taking it out of the game.
There was an appetite from Webb, who was at the top of his game when he was an umpire, to be more open and honest with transparency in umpiring decision-making.
But there is now a widespread focus on giving officials greater levels of respect, and that starts with reducing the volume of dissent.
Mail Sport can reveal Premier League clubs have been warned they face stiffer fines and their managers more bans from the FA as they desperately try to crack down on referee abuse.
The FA and top refereeing body PGMOL set out the tougher approach for Premier League and EFL clubs last week. Further talks on the issue are also planned for next week.
Mikel Arteta’s outburst at St James’ Park earlier this month, in which he described Stuart Attwell’s decision to award Anthony Gordon’s winning goal for Newcastle as “embarrassing” and “disgraceful”, was referred to in last week’s meeting, as well as the club announcement. by Arsenal the following day, in which they backed their manager and called on PGMOL to “urgently address the standard of refereeing” in the Premier League.
Arteta was charged with misconduct by the FA last week for using words that were “offensive to the match referees and/or prejudicial to the game and/or bring the game into disrepute”, but Arsenal escaped without reprimand for endorsing his comments Spanish.