OF course school hooligans copy foul-mouthed footballers like Wayne Rooney.

Hilary Bills, president of the National Union of Teachers, condemned the Manchester United striker for swearing at the refereee and told the NUT conference that youngsters think such behaviour is perfectly acceptable.

This situation will only improve when a hard line is taken with this kind of nasty abuse.

It's not tolerated in rugby and we have been foolish to allow it to develop so spectacularly in football .