Referee confrontations on the rise

London - The English Football Association has warned clubs about their players' on-field behavior after what it calls a "scary" rise in the number of cases of referees being surrounded.

Such incidents in the top five divisions have already led to 16 FA charges against clubs, which results in a sliding scale of fines, compared with six cases in each of the previous two seasons. A further 29 warnings have also been issued to clubs this season.

"We have seen a pretty scary increase this season in the number of clubs charged with their players surrounding referees," FA chairman Greg Dyke said.