now come along, you cannot defend refs one minute by quoting the letter of the law and then come out with that sort of nonsense...and continuing your logic if all the players deliberatly handball, fight, break legs in tackles the ref is powerless to act for fear of having too high a card count.....is that what you are saying?
there is a difference between pushing and shoving and general jostling as at every corner and wrestling....or can you not see that?...and personally I'd love to see this sort of crap forced out of the game yes by booking and sending off until the players get the message and by using video evidence after matches to mop up what the ref did or didn't see wether he'd put the thing in his bible match report or not!!!
the ref lost control, the players acted like naughty schoolkids....I suspect there is a link .....maybe there isn't.......but please don't defend refs for defending refs sake because I promise you you will trip yourself up with contradictions.....
at the end of the day if the ref showed some humility and talked to the players instead of waving in their faces and prancing round like a commandant he wouldn't annoy the fans and players quite so much.....or do you disagree with that too?