The Football Association's Respect campaign - aimed at promoting better behaviour towards referees - has come under renewed scrutiny amid suggestions it is already faltering.
In a perfect world, of course we would want unblemished respect from players and managers towards officials and vice versa - but ultimately there are too many other aspects at work to make this possible.
Emmerson Boyce was wrongly sent off and you would have to show incredible restraint not to react
Alan Hansen
Let me state straight away that I believe referees have the hardest job in the world.
I never came back into any dressing room to hear everyone saying how great the referee was. If we lost it was because the referee was useless, and if we won it was because we were great.
It is a thankless task and you will never please everybody, and while I applaud the Respect campaign and feel its intentions are entirely honourable, if you ask me if there is an answer to making it work in a faultless fashion, I would have to say no.
If you look back 20 or 30 years ago, it was a more physical game and we just accepted that. Now there are so many thin dividing lines between tackles for red and yellow cards and the stakes are so high.
If you want the campaign to work to perfection, then you would have to take out human emotion, reactions, titles, promotion, relegation, money and ensure there are no stakes to play for. That particular day will never arrive and there is no perfect solution, so we have to try and make the best of what we have.
I have tried really hard to come up with a solution as to how the Respect campaign can be made to operate seamlessly and with maximum effect, but I honestly do not believe there is a complete answer.
If you look at Saturday's game between Newcastle United and Wigan Athletic, when Emmerson Boyce was wrongly sent off, then you would have to show incredible restraint not to react.
And of course the former Watford boss Aidy Boothroyd was hit with an FA charge of aiming abusive and/or insulting words towards referee Stuart Attwell in the game when Reading were awarded a goal when the ball actually went out of play.
I am not in any way condoning a lack of respect towards referees, but you would almost have to be a saint not to react to an obvious error like that.
The rewards for success and the penalties for failure in football are now so great that even the most mild-mannered person would find it hard not to react to any perceived injustice. When I played the stakes were high, but now we could have clubs' entire futures riding on some decisions.
If a decision goes against you, you can multiply the consequences by 10 these days.
There are areas where problems can be tackled. If players are running after referees or surrounding them, then they can start brandishing cards. This will soon sort that out.
I would also try and improve communication between all parties. I feel there was more communication when I played and I do think that can be worked on to improve things, because I do feel the Respect campaign is great in theory but struggles in practice.
I applaud the intentions of the campaign, and I do actually think it has done some good, but it will never work perfectly.
It is a question of everyone doing their best to make it work and try to understand the pressures of everyone involved in a sport where there are great pressures, huge incentives and penalties.
But unless you remove human emotion from the equation - and that will not happen - it will never work perfectly and we just have to live with that reality.
Alan Hansen was talking to BBC Sport's Phil McNulty
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