Nigel Saverton says that every league in Oxfordshire should adopt a zero tolerance policy to abusive behaviour of players and spectators to ensure the county bucks the national trend of declining referees.

The county's referee's development officer is urging others to follow the lead of the Sport Italia Hellenic League - and adopt the policy where referees can send off and report any player who uses abusive language.

And that, he believes, will ensure Oxfordshire can cover 100 per cent of games.

At present, almost 90 per cent of adult matches in the county have a qualified referee.

But with the number of new officials coming into the game only replacing those who are dropping out, Saverton believes that a zero tolerance policy would increase the number to 100 per cent.

He said: "All clubs in the Hellenic League have been made aware of their responsibilties, and there are quite harsh penalties if they overstep the mark.

"Too many times in the past abusive behaviour has just been accepted, and this discourages youngsters from coming into the game.

"Clubs in the Hellenic League know where they stand, and there has been a noticeable change in attitude. There is no grey area.

"The more leagues that sign up for this - the easier it will become to stamp it out."

Saverton says that although there is a shortage of referees, the situation is much better here than in other areas.

Nationally, the Football Association wants to recruit 8,000 new referees by the year 2012, but Saverton believes Oxfordshire are well on the way to fulfilling their goal.

"Inner-city areas around London are losing far more referees than we are," he said.

"Oxfordshire is definitely bucking the national trend regarding new recruits.

"We are about 20 referees down on 12 months ago, with around 100 giving up and 80 new officials coming on board.

"Of the 100 we have lost, a lot of those are due to personal reasons and natural wastage.

"Some have given up for what I would term 'non-specific' reasons, and a fair percentage of those would be because of the abuse they have received on a matchday.

"This is why the zero-tolerance approach is the way forward.

"It's not too late to clean up the game and stamp out bad behaviour from players and clubs, and I really think we're moving in the right direction."

Our picture shows Banbury United's Paul Lamb (left) and Ady Fuller showing their frustration at referee Paul Toyer after a decision goes against them in a derby match with Brackley.