Carl Asaba: “I don't know how we're going to eradicate this from the modern game without the referees growing some spines”

Former Sheffield United striker Carl Asaba has spoken out against modern-day referees, saying they need to ‘grow some spines’.

United's loss to Portsmouth at Fratton Park last week was arguably decided before half-time after referee Oliver Langford showed Hamza Choudhury a second yellow card after it appeared that the Pompey attacker simply ran into United’s makeshift right-back.

Choudhury only registered two fouls against Ryan Kavuma-McQueen, yet he was booked for both challenges.

While discussing the incident on The Star’s ‘Inside Bramall Lane’ podcast, Asaba argues that referees are too quick to penalise defenders for challenges that should be considered a normal 'coming together'.

He said, “I watch nowadays just thinking I would have got so many free kicks and the game would have been so much easier because if you think you're going to lose the ball, half the time if you know there's contact coming, you can throw yourself and win a free kick whereas back in my day, all you'd hear was screams of hold it, hold it, be stronger.”

“It's infuriating,” he added.

“When I was playing for the Warnock team, we were finding it hard to get soft free kicks because we've got it ingrained in us, ‘you stay on your feet’.”

Despite the Blades' reputation being largely built on physicality, the former United player argues that opposition teams no longer attempt to battle in the way they used to.

“There's no point Chris (Wilder) telling his players to stay on their feet if the other team is getting it (decisions); you want consistency.”

“If the other team is going to get free kicks for throwing themselves in dangerous areas, then our team are going to do it, and I don't know how we're going to eradicate this from the modern game without the referees growing some spines,” he added.

“If you have retrospective penalties and fines for players who are caught out, I think that will help the game massively.”

“If a referee really is that bad, and it is beyond little errors, I do think we have to persist and try and get this brought to light and stop it.”

Asaba also showed his support for interviewing referees post-match to help hold them accountable.