5 - 12 match ban now for assaulting the Ref! Are you reading Neil Lennon?? "The Scottish Football Association will impose lengthy bans on players who assault match officials this season." http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/scotland/5217500.stm
With the standard of refereeing recently it's no surprise they're warning the players! Referees like Colin Hardie and Crawford Allan that we get in the second division are totally incompetant and attention seekers.
What constitutes assault though? outwith decking the radge i mean, does a good old in your face tongue lashing count as assault if the ref writes it up as such in his report?
Way too soft. Physical assault should range from a minimum of 1 year to a maximum of life. The part on the referee having the first review of any appeals is excellent, however it should stop there. If the referee does not rescind a red card why should a panel undermine his interpretation of the rules?
What if the panel's interpretation is wrong? If an appeal is passed to the referee and he turns it down then the panel over-rules him what does that say about the referee? His position will just have been completely undermined.
Then he can retire in shame. It's the only way to up the frankly pathetic standards of refereeing we see up here.