Mike Jennings.co.uk

Football fans can't have missed the earth-shattering amount of hype that Sky have been dribbling out of their sports channels for the past three months: today is Grand Slam Sunday - the day when, thanks to the happily coincidental fixture computer, the top four teams in the league collide on one day.

Nothing to do with TV schedules, you understand.

So we're watching Manchester United v Liverpool - United are (one of) my teams, so we're all very eager for them to win. It was a competitive match, although not particularly aggressive, like past encounters have been. There was one flashpoint, though: the sending off of Liverpool midfielder Javier Mascherano.

It revolved around an incident where scouse striker Fernando Torres was booked. Mascherano had been booked earlier in the match and had been complaining about every decision to the referee ever since - and then jogged 20 yards to him just to complain and ask about the decision to book Torres.

He walked over and appeared to argue - or at least disagree - with referee Steve Bennett who, after being heranged by Mascherano for much of the first half, gave him a second yellow card for his continuing dissent - and sent him off.

It's interesting to note that, at this point, Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez had made his way down to the touchline; at first to complain about the decision to book Torres, but then to scream at his midfielder to leave the issue and walk away - he could see that a potential second yellow card was coming. After the red was shown, Mascherano appeared to see the red mist descend - Roy Keane would have been proud - and continued to argue his case. A few Liverpool players surrounded the referee and pleaded with him, but eventually they - notably included captain Steven Gerrard - and most of the coaching staff had to physically remove him from the field and down the tunnel.

His behaviour was petulant, disgusting and abhorrent: exactly the kind of thing that the FA would like to stamp out in a week where Ashley Cole was just as guilty, and exactly the kind of thing they didn't want to see in one of the flagship games of the season.

Plenty of ideas have been floated about how to stop this sort of behaviour and, potentially, ingrain into the game the kind of respect shown to the officials in Rugby. It's been mentioned that only captains should be able to talk to the referee - a practise which John Terry already habitually engages in - and that dissent and increased backchat should result in harsher penalties, just like the one we saw today.

But, if the players are going to react like that, what will happen? It's no good if Benitez will come out after the match and defend his player, even though he may give him a dressing-down in private. It's been proved that this doesn't work: for all their public defences and private ranting, this behaviour continues. Perhaps a public humiliation is just what these pampered professionals need.

Fines also seem pretty ineffectual. It seems that Robbie Keane was fined a huge sum of money a couple of weeks ago - £120,000 - until you realise that he'll be able to pay it off in less than a month from basic wages, not counting any bonuses or endorsement deals.

It's true that something needs to be done - because Mascherano's behaviour today was just as bad as John Terry trying to grab a card out of the referee's hand, or Ashley Cole turning his back on an official and then offering the most pathetic apology I've ever seen. Worse than this, though, is the affect this will have on football up and down the country. Players I've named today are role models, and their actions on the field filter down to the grass-roots: kids will copy them, and the tiny percentage that make it to the professional game will have learned that this is the right way to behave - and no amount of Fergie-esque hairdryer treatment or badgering from their fathers will be able to make them revoke behaviour that their heroes endorse.

It's a sad state affairs and one that, like diving, continues to undermine the sport. Let's hope that the FA - perhaps led by Fabio Capello, as it looks like he actually has a pair - can do something about it.