Sir Trevor Brooking hopes the star players and top managers of the Barclays Premier League will "buy into" the Football Association's new initiative designed to give more respect to referees.

The FA announced their National Game Strategy 2008-2012, which will see a record £200million investment into the grassroots of the sport over the next five years, on Tuesday.

A part of the initiative - which also includes improving the coaching levels as well as the basic skills of youngsters - is the RESPECT campaign, which is aimed at looking to address the poor attitude from players towards referees and also from parents watching on the sidelines.

The 10-week pilot scheme is currently well under way and is being trialled in 20 select leagues around the country.

It includes measures such as only the captain being allowed to talk directly to the referee, roped off areas for spectators and encouragement of feedback from players and officials alike.

The major stakeholders at the elite level of the English game - namely the Premier League, the Football League and the FA - are set to discuss the issues raised when they meet next month.

Brooking, the FA's director of football development, feels progress can be made in getting such an approach adopted by the men at the top, who are supposed to be acting as role models.

"I understand you have to link it in with the top end of the game, but with the work we have done it is really important to get this up and running," the former England striker said.

"Hopefully then the meeting next month, which involves the professional stakeholders, can buy into something themselves - which they launch at the start of the next season - which is meaningful and is supported.

"It would be wrong for me to say that on all my travels, mums, dads, young players and coaches don't draw that comparison [with the professionals] but that is really a poor excuse for whoever is running your local grassroots team to behave as they do.

"That is just using someone else's errors to justify your misbehaviour. So we have to set the lead at the grassroots level.

"Obviously the challenging area is further up when you get all the issues which are at stake at the highest level.

"Let's see what emerges out of the next few weeks. Hopefully there is going to be something positive."

New FA chairman Lord Triesman is in no doubt he can bring the factions of the game together as the governing body looks towards a bright future for both club and country.

The former Government minister is the first independent chairman of the FA and has held various political posts, including in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

The 64-year-old intends to hold face-to-face discussions with the game's most prominent figures and feels his experience can go a long way towards making the likes of Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger work towards a common goal.

"I would like to have a discussion with people who have that leading role right across the senior ranks of football, and there is no reason to think we are going to lock horns and have rows about it," he said.

"I am quite convinced that however passionate and partisan people are, that there can be mature discussions about these things, and they are overdue.

"In other jobs I have done, I have held discussions with people who are very strong willed, in whatever realm they were in, they held phenomenal power and authority, and some of them have been persuadable that there is a bigger good at stake and that we can arrive at it."

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