PFA boss prepared for 'mayhem'

Terry was acquitted of a racially aggravated public order offence by chief magistrate Howard Riddle at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday.

It was alleged that he had called Anton Ferdinand a 'f****** black c***' but the England star claimed he was sarcastically repeating a slur that the Queens Park Rangers defender mistakenly thought he had used during a Premier League match last year.

Terry could still face charges from within the game as the Football Association continues to investigate the incident.

An FA spokesman said after the verdict: "The FA notes the decision in the John Terry case and will now seek to conclude its own inquiries."

But the case also helped shine a light on the wider issue of players' contact to each other, with Ferdinand acknowledging in his evidence that aside from the racial aspect, the other terms of abuse are routinely exchanged between players on the pitch.

Carlisle said: "I think generally there is a very high level of abusive language that goes on on the pitch and it just seems to be par for the course, but I don't agree that it should be that way.

"In order to change it it would take a very strong line from the referees, a very strong line from the governing bodies and it would probably cause mayhem for the short-term period.

"We do have the regulations within the game in order to stamp out any kind of foul and abusive language, but they are just not enforced to the nth degree."

FIFA's Laws of the Game list 'using offensive, insulting or abusive language and/or gestures' as a sending-off offence and, if their use is as widespread as suggested in Ferdinand's evidence, there would be fears of games regularly being abandoned due to teams dropping below seven players should each incident be punished in such a fashion.

Carlisle added on BBC Radio Five Live: "I think if we were to adopt a line of social responsibility, because sport is so influential, especially football that's watched by hundreds of millions on a weekly basis, it would create a short-term period of mayhem.

"But I think if players were being sent off and banned because of the language that they are using then it would cause them to address their behaviour and it would cause the clubs to come down on it too."

Carlisle's colleague at the PFA, chief executive Gordon Taylor, called for the FA's 'Respect' campaign to be reinforced ahead of the new season in light of the case.

Taylor told the Press Association: "It has been an unedifying process and the game has been damaged as a result of the dirty linen being washed in public.

"I now want to see an improvement in the Respect campaign. It is not just the line between what is banter and what is illegal, so much of what we have heard this week needs to be cut out.

"The players are role models and everything now gets picked up in a match on television. These insults and this language leads to things that should not be said."