Football: Alcock forced to consider future
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Your support makes all the difference.PAUL ALCOCK, the referee at the centre of the Paolo Di Canio controversy, was considering his future yesterday after being pushed to the ground by the Italian on Saturday.
"I have spoken to Paul three times to give him support as he was very shocked - it is something you don't expect to happen," said Philip Don, the Premier League's referees' officer. "He's obviously going to think about his future - whether he continues as a referee has entered his mind.
"When things like that happen you have to consider your place in the game, but I am sure I will see him refereeing in the Premier League in a couple of weeks."
Don said it was the worst violence he had seen towards a match official in English football. He said: "There was an incident last season when David Batty pushed David Elleray when he sent him off in a Blackburn-Newcastle match but it was not as bad. I've never known it to happen as it did here."
Alcock has been involved in a physical confrontation with a player once before. In December 1991 Frank Sinclair received a three-match suspension, which was then trebled to nine matches by an FA disciplinary commission, after clashing heads with Alcock in a Second Division match at Exeter.
Sinclair, who last month moved from Stamford Bridge to Leicester, was on loan from Chelsea to West Bromwich Albion at the time of the incident.
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