Bournemouth midfielder, Dan Gosling, says referee Jon Moss was “a disgrace” during their 2-1 Premier League defeat to Sheffield United.
The Blades came from behind at Bramall Lane to win and move up to fifth in the table. For the Cherries, they remain two points and two places outside the relegation zone following the result.
And it was his side’s perilous position towards the bottom of the division that Gosling says Moss mocked him and his teammates about.
“The officials talk about respect at the start of the season and there was zero respect from Jon Moss on Sunday,” the 30-year-old told the Daily Echo.
“I thought he was a disgrace. The comments that he made especially to me and one other player – talking about the relegation zone and ‘you’re still in the relegation zone’, ‘you’re having one’, ‘your team’s having one’ this and that and it was very, very disrespectful.”
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Why Dan Gosling comments are hypocritical
(Photo by Daniel Chesterton/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
As a top flight referee, Moss is a professional and should act like one. If he said what Gosling alleges he did, then that is unprofessional and he may be reprimanded by the Premier League.
Yet if players want respect from officials, then it works both ways. This is not about Gosling specifically. He may never have been disrespectful to a ref during his career for all we know.
But for those who watch football regularly it’s clear that, in general, footballers do not show respect to officials. In fact, they are often subject to abuse.
In a 2015 survey, as reported by BBC Sport, almost two-thirds of refs in England said they “experience verbal abuse on a regular basis.”
Many of those asked were at grassroots level, but it doesn’t take a lipreader to see what officials are subjected to in the top flight as well.
Is it any wonder that sometimes they might respond? And, in the case of Moss, with comments that sound like a joke?
A player calling a referee out for a lack of respect just stinks of hypocrisy.
