Ian Appleyard: Time to get tough at top to protect the Sunday park player

The issue has split football down the middle and the old school insists it was always 'much worse in my day'.

But the game has changed significantly since the days of Norman Hunter, Ron Harris and Tommy Smith.

Modern day players are fitter, quicker and stronger and the intensity of their challenges inevitably increases the chance of injury,

However, there is still a line that should never be crossed and players, at all levels, have a duty of care to their opponent.

The Football Association and FIFA betray everyone in the game when they fail to take retrospective action against players like Manchester City's Nigel de Jong.

His challenge on Newcastle's Hatem Ben Arfa broke two bones. He lunged with such ferocity that injury was virtually inevitable, irrespective of whether he got the ball first. Wolves midfielder Karl Henry was equally reckless with his shocking challenge on Wigan's Jordi Gomez.

Referee Martin Atkinson, from Pontefract, did not even regard De Jong's challenge as a foul. Perhaps he should have played the game more.

There used to be an argument that no foul is committed if the player touches the ball before the man. That is a myth. A player can go into a tackle at such an angle that it is impossible not to take out the man and that has to be wrong.

The wider problem is that whatever is tolerated in the Premier League is immediately regarded as acceptable at amateur level.

Still pulling on my boots, at the age of 39, I am sickened by the nature of some challenges that go unpunished by local referees on a Sunday morning,

If you think it is bad in the Premier League, come and have a look at some of the stuff that goes on in the mud and rain at the local park where there are no television cameras to capture things off the ball.

Do not forget, our rules are supposed to be exactly the same as those right at the top. Yet when you have a referee who feels intimated or isolated, he can often be reluctant to issue a red card. Booking players early is the answer.

There is hard and fair, and then there is just plain stupid – which some tackles are.

Every player should have a duty of care to his opponent, whatever the level of football.

In recent years, the FA have invested heavily in the 'Respect' campaign with referees, specifically, in mind.

Maybe now is the time for a similar campaign to be launched, this time with the aim of promoting respect between players and ensuring each other's safety.

Alas, we now have a generation of teenagers leaving school who have never known the hard line.

Some believe they are entitled to say whatever they want and treat people however they want without retribution.

Some even snigger when a Sunday parks player has to limp off the field after a bad tackle.

So a brief plea to the FA and referees: Get tough at the top because everyone in the footballing food chain is looking for strong leadership.