One Sunday morning last summer, John Bieniewicz, a referee in the Michigan United Soccer League, showed a player a yellow card for a bad tackle. The player, Bassel Saad, began to shout abuse at him, so Bieniewicz reached for his pocket and prepared to send him off. Before Bieniewicz could dismiss him, Saad felled him with a punch that knocked him unconscious. Bieniewicz died two days later in hospital. On Friday, as Saad’s trial in a Detroit courtroom came to an end, the referee’s widow was determined to do one last thing to honour her dead husband’s memory. Kris Bieniewicz approached the bench as Saad waited to be sentenced and pulled something from her pocket. She stood there and brandished it at her husband’s killer. ‘I would like to serve Mr Saad with the red card that he was entitled to,’ she said. John Bieniewicz's widow, Kris Bieniewicz, addresses the court and holds up a red card to Bassel Saad . Saad (left) will spend at least eight years in prison after killing Bieniewicz with one punch . It sounds almost like a parody, doesn’t it? But it wasn’t. The judge sentenced Saad to eight to 15 years in prison. ‘You’ve come to personify all that’s wrong with the escalation of violence in sports,’ he told him. It was a human tragedy most of all, of course, a tragedy for young children who lost their father and a wife who lost her husband. But it also told a sad and unpalatable tale of the behaviour that is leaving an ugly, ugly stain on football. Tragedies like the one that happened in Michigan are rare but you only had to watch Manchester United–Arsenal and Chelsea-Paris Saint-Germain last week to know that referees are under siege. Many observers still see them as acceptable victims in football’s great passion play. Threatening officials is just part of the game, they say. Anything to get an edge. I listened to some of the Chelsea-PSG game on the radio and the dismay in the voice of Mark Lawrenson as he commented on what he saw was powerful. ‘This is an angry game being played by angry men,’ he said. Bjorn Kuipers was hounded by nine Chelsea players as Zlatan Ibrahimovic was sent off for a tackle on Oscar . Paris Saint-Germain players also surrounded the Dutch official as tempers threatened to boil over . Let’s be honest about this: it is getting to the point now where if you want to be a referee, only heroes need apply. You will be threatened and you will be ridiculed — on and off the pitch. If you make a decision that meets with the disapproval of a manager who is trying to shift the blame for a poor performance, you will be hounded and you will be abused. If we carry on like this, we’re going to have to start paying referees danger money. You think I’m joking? I’m not. A few years ago, I watched a Sunday league game between two junior teams at Paddington Rec in west London that ended amid some disagreement about whether the referee had blown the final whistle too early. As the referee was walking off, he was kicked by several of the kids, who were in their mid-teens. Proper kicks, too. A few of the players tried to trip the referee up as he headed for the touchline. I asked the kids’ coach why he was tolerating their behaviour. ‘They’re just disappointed,’ he said. Casual intimidation comes with the territory for referees now. It’s part of the deal. It’s getting worse, not better. How have we sunk this low? How have we got to the point where Angel di Maria thinks it is acceptable to chase after Michael Oliver and yank at his shirt? Angel di Maria puts his hands on referee Michael Oliver following his first yellow card for diving . Oliver received plaudits for his swift and stern reaction to Di Maria's display of disrespect . How have we got to the point where it is deemed merely a pragmatic part of the game for Chelsea’s players to fall upon Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers like hungry beasts when they want a decision to go in their favour? How has it got to the point where some seek to justify that kind of behaviour as shrewd or cute or clever? The gist of the defence appears to rest on the morally bankrupt idea that everybody else is doing it so we have to do it, too. It is a dangerous principle. I am uncomfortable with the notion that players should be role models for kids because that is an abrogation of parental responsibility. But it is easy to see how the sight of Premier League players hounding a referee will influence children on a local park to do the same and possibly worse. If there is any hope that things will change, it lies in the reaction of the majority of fans to the epidemic of cheating and bullying that is infesting the game. This is not just about Chelsea or United, by the way. It is not confined to English clubs. Far from it. They were just last week’s worst offenders. After the United-Arsenal game, there was an immediate and protracted outpouring of support for Michael Oliver. He was, indeed, treated like a hero for refusing to tolerate Di Maria grabbing at his shirt despite the angry protestations of United’s players. Di Maria protests his innocence in vain, but the Manchester United playmaker was admirably dealt with . Di Maria trudges off to leave United depleted and facing an FA Cup exit following his tug at Oliver's shirt . It was as if a great wave of relief was flooding over the wider football community that finally someone was standing up for what was right. People pointed out, quite rightly, that Oliver had done a great service to parks referees everywhere. He had made it plain that grabbing a referee should not be tolerated. Something needs to be done to help Oliver and his colleagues. Enforcing a rule where only the captain can talk to the official would be a start. Punishing all dissent, as they do in rugby, would be better. Allowing referees to review contentious decisions with video technology would take the heat out of the situation, too. Better still, let’s stop making excuses for players’ behaviour. Let’s stop defending the intimidation of referees with bogus arguments about how clever it is. Let’s remember where it can lead. ‘Referees are out there on an island with no one to defend them,’ said the widow of John Bieniewicz yesterday. It’s about time we put that right. Sir Peter, friend of the beaten gambler . I listened to an enchanting radio interview last week with the great racing commentator, Sir Peter O’Sullevan, who recently celebrated his 97th birthday. During his conversation with Garry Richardson, Sir Peter explained that he had always tried to avoid levity in his race commentaries because he was aware that many among his audience would be ‘haemorrhaging fiscally’ as they listened. I thought of Sir Peter when I paid my first ever visit to the Cheltenham Festival on Tuesday. Peter O'Sullevan relaxes in the Newbury commentary box in 1997 during his last day working for the BBC . It was a wonderful day in the beautiful sporting amphitheatre below Cleeve Hill and it was a thrill to watch the horsemanship of Ruby Walsh as Willie Mullins’ horses carried all before them. But when the last race had been run, I contemplated a succession of betting slips showing the names of also-rans like Mischievous Milly, Jezki, Vibrato Valtat and L’Ami Serge that had brought me plenty of fiscal haemorrhaging and thought how welcome it would have been to have the commentaries of Sir Peter soothing my losses. When Peter Moores reacts to defeat against Bangladesh by saying he is going to have to ‘look at the data’ and Eoin Morgan says he has ‘no regrets’ about England’s wretched performances in the World Cup, it is hardly surprising that talk of a Kevin Pietersen comeback should gain credence. The World Cup debacle was the latest chapter of Peter Moores' turbulent time as England coach . Let’s not pretend Pietersen’s return would draw a line under the mayhem that has overrun the ECB, though. It would merely mark a new phase in English cricket’s civil war.
John Bieniewicz, a referee in the Michigan United Soccer League, was felled by a punch from Bassel Saad as he prepared to send him off . The punch knocked him unconscious. Bieniewicz died two days later in hospital . Saad was imprisoned for at least eight years this week. In the courtroom, Beiniewicz's widow showed him a red card . Tragedies  are rare but you only had to watch Manchester United–Arsenal and Chelsea-Paris Saint-Germain  to know that referees are under siege .