Erling Haaland is our new poster boy for tantrums by entitled multi-millionaires. Why should we indulge this institutionalised thuggery a moment longer?

I did a few stops on the London Underground yesterday. Somewhere on the Bakerloo line between Marylebone and Paddington I found myself staring at a poster above the row of seats opposite.

It showed a series of hands in the air and a message written on it by Transport for London. “We do not condone abuse of TfL staff,” it said, alongside a message warning that action would be taken against those who committed the offences.

Absolutely right too. Because apart from football, where we are captivated by the increasingly aggressive and boundless tantrums of a few overrated multi-millionaires, in what other stage of life would we be watching the way Erling Haaland behaved towards referee Simon Hooper at The Etihad on Sunday and do you think it was somehow acceptable?

Where else but football would we watch what Haaland did and then look the other way? In no other sport, that's for sure. Not in rugby union or rugby league. Not in cricket. Not in hockey or tennis. Nowhere. Why would football still be an outlier? Why should we surrender to this institutionalized violence a moment longer?

Hooper made a mistake when he reversed his earlier decision to play an advantage and blew for a foul on Haaland as the Norwegian striker had put Jack Grealish through on goal in the final minutes of the 3-3 draw between Manchester City and Spurs on Sunday night.

Maybe Hooper panicked under the pressure. Maybe he thought he saw a linesman's flag. It would be useful if there was a line of communication so that we could receive explanations. It was a mistake and it was a big mistake. That is obvious. It could have changed the outcome of the game. Maybe not. None of it excuses Haaland's behavior.

Sure, City have been accused by the FA of failing to control their players after the fight that followed, but they don't care. A fine is not for them. It's an irrelevance. Where is the individual responsibility? Where is the threat of a punishment that will actually hurt them and act as a deterrent for Haaland and others? There is no.

Another reason why City drew on Sunday is that Haaland also made mistakes. He is a phenomenon as a player, but there was a moment in the first half when Bernardo Silva played a square ball to him and to the general astonishment, Haaland sent his shot wide from six yards, with the goal gaping.

It turns out that mistake cost City the win. You could at least argue that. But I didn't see anyone rushing at Haaland and shouting in his face, gesturing at him, crowding him, shouting so close he could feel their hot breath on his cheeks on a bitter night in Manchester. Haaland can make a mistake, but a referee can't?

By the way, I thought that in our desperation to get rid of VAR, we had reached a consensus that we are willing to accept old-fashioned human error from referees. Errr, maybe say that to Simon Hooper when he's surrounded by a pack of City players and his reputation is being criticized across the country for a mistake under pressure.

This has been allowed to go on for too long. It has been almost 24 years since Jaap Stam, Roy Keane, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs and David Beckham formed a vigilante group and, with popping veins, pointing fingers, staring eyes and gaping mouth, chased referee Andy D'Urso across the Old Field pitch. Trafford. because they disagreed with one of his calls.

It became one of the iconic football images of its time. It was used to illustrate the idea that Manchester United were out of control, drunk on their own power, red with their own success, creatures who ran on the anger and righteous indignation that Sir Alex Ferguson had bred within them.

It's incredibly disheartening but, fueled by player power and the arrogance and entitlement brought on by new levels of prosperity, top players' behavior towards referees has since deteriorated and is fueling an epidemic of harassment and abuse in basic football. .

And now we have a new poster taking the place of the United gang surrounding Andy D'Urso. Now we have another image that will be used for years to come to show how the abuse of referees has been normalized and sanctified and championed by too many people within the game.

We have another image that young footballers will have already seen, an image that legitimizes the kind of thuggish, petulant, childish and spoiled behavior that they will emulate across the country when they get right in a referee's face and scream their hatred. it.

Let me tell you what the image is not. It is not the artist's image on the front cover of Sunday's City-Spurs programme, in which Haaland sits cross-legged on the Etihad pitch in a Zen-like pose, his eyes closed, a serene smile on his face , his arms outstretched. , his hands arranged so that his thumb touches his index finger, forming a circle.

No, this image is different. The image that will launch a thousand more copycat attacks on referees is of Haaland, his hands clamped to his head, pulling back his hair, a demonic look of hatred mixed with disbelief on his face as he unleashes his anger on Mr Hooper in the immediate vicinity. aftermath of his decision.

Haaland – along with Ruben Dias and Mateo Kovacic – immediately confronts the referee, his anger unchecked. His face is contorted into an expression of anger, pain, misery and disbelief, making him resemble the figure in The Scream, the painting by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch.

It is difficult to exaggerate the negative power this image will exert. Haaland is the greatest striker in the world. He is a brilliant goalscoring machine, the figurehead of a City side that is the best club team in the world, a side that wants to become the first in English history to win the Premier League title four times in a row.

And when a decision goes against him, he behaves like it. Young players – players of all ages – are very impressionable. This is exactly the kind of image that will encourage them to come into contact with referees on the Sunday League pitches. Get in the referee's face and much, much worse.

Apologists for Haaland's behavior – and there will be plenty of them – will talk about the pressure young players are under these days and the best response to that remains the comment made by Australian all-rounder Keith Miller during the flight for the Royal Australian Air Force flew. WWII.

When asked by presenter Michael Parkinson how he dealt with the pressure of cricket, Miller responded sharply. “Pressure is a Messerschmitt up your ass,” he said. “Playing cricket is not.”

It's time to stop giving in to this irritability that we've been suffering from for too long. It's time to recognize that this is starting to threaten the very fabric of football. Why would anyone want to be a referee when intimidating player behavior is encouraged by the stars at the top of the game?

“I'm not going to do a Mikel Arteta,” City manager Pep Guardiola said after the match, referring to the Arsenal boss' hysterical outburst after a decision went against his team in the defeat at Newcastle last month. Guardiola may not have done Arteta, but his players had already done it for him.

Hooper played a great game, but he didn't just make one mistake. He made two. He booked Haaland for his protests when he should have sent him away.

Forget the collective slap on the wrist that City are now facing from the FA. It means less than nothing. To take referee protection and the game seriously, Haaland should look at a three-match ban so he can think more carefully about how he would react if someone ran up to him and shouted abuse in his face the next time that he missed a match. open goal. Not good, I think.