“Where the referee is certain that someone deliberately, and from close range, coughed into the face of an opponent or match official . . . the referee should take action under the law 12 ‘using offensive, insulting or abusive language and/or gestures’
“The action of moving the head/mouth towards someone and then coughing would fall within the ‘spirit’ and general definition of a gesture which is ‘a movement of part of the body, especially a hand or the head, to express an idea or meaning’.
“If the incident was not severe enough to merit a sending-off, a caution could be issued for ‘unsporting behaviour — shows a lack of respect for the game’.”
Typical giving the refs a cop out leading to more inconsistency