FA bosses are bringing in stiffer punishments for violence to referees after a rise in the number of assaults against officials.

The county FA's threat comes after 560 red cards and 3,500 bookings were reported to the county FA last season, with 100 players receiving five cautions and a further 11 collecting 10.

This was a rise of roughly ten per cent on the previous year's figures, but while incidents of serious foul play have dropped, county officials say the number of cards stemming from abuse of officials is getting ever higher.

Wiltshire FA discipline secretary Malcolm Baldwin said: "There is more and more foul and abusive language generally these days and if referees sent people off every time they swore there would be hardly anyone left on the pitch."

These statistics only refer to action taken against players and coaches and Wiltshire FA has also identified a growing problem with spectators' behaviour.

Baldwin added: "The biggest problem our referees find with supporters on the sidelines is them shouting abuse and fighting among themselves. It happens a lot in youth games and some of these adults are setting a bad example to their kids."

Officials will meet this summer to consider how best they can get tough on offenders.

Wiltshire FA secretary Mike Benson said: "We are determined to stop this problem. If it means that we have to up the fines and suspensions then so be it.

"The national FA is naturally concerned, as we are as a county, that the disciplinary records are on the rise. This is particularly the case for foul and abusive language and abuse of match officials. It is quite interesting that serious foul play, such as bad tackles, seems to be lessening.

"We also have a problem in youth and minor football where many parents have become abusive to officials and even other players."

Wiltshire honorary referees secretary Ian Whitehouse said refereeing numbers in the county were lower than would he would like.

"There is a shortage of numbers of referees locally at the moment. We'll always be short and you can't have enough really," he said.

"We have around 300 referees in Wiltshire which is roughly a reduction of 80 since the end of the season.

"We usually have around 300 at this time of year and by the start of the new season are back up by about 80.

"Obviously some referees give up for different reasons like work commitments but we always train new referees all year round and that's where the extra numbers come from.

"That is still not as many as we would like though. A figure we would be happy with would be around 450."

He said the lack of referees meant a lot of junior level matches could not be overseen by official referees.

"When there are not enough referees to go round usually the games will still go ahead but the two sides have to agree on someone to stand in as referee," he added.

But Whitehouse is happy with the county FA's support of officials and felt it is still a good time to become a referee. "I've heard the statistics but I wouldn't say things were particularly worse last season," he said.

"It is not any worse now than it has been in the last few years and referees will continue to deal with abuse as they see fit.

"Whether heavier fines will improve things I wouldn't like to really comment but what I can say is that there are always one or two referees who quit at the end of a season because of abuse.

"That is only my view though because sometimes I think outgoing referees give different reasons for why they are leaving.

"I think the county FA do offer adequate support to referees. Provided the referees deal with the incident on the pitch and put it in their report the county FA can support them. People who have assaulted referees in the past have been dealt with severely."

Whitehouse continued: "There's no better time to get into refereeing. The chances for a young person taking up refereeing are far greater now.

"There are opportunities to go right to the top and new added promotion procedures will come in next season. You can only be promoted once in a season but providing referees pass their tests and have officiated sufficient number of games they can be promoted twice in a season from next year.''

Fines and suspensions are likely to rise for next year. The current levels range from a seven-day ban and £10 fine for five cautions to a permanent suspension for causing serious bodily harm to a match official.

Last season there were four assaults on match officials. None of the cases went to the criminal courts but two players were banned without appeal for five years and two were banned for 182-days and fined £150.

Referee Ian Hailstone, 53, from Bath, was the victim of one of the assaults. He was pushed over by a player in a match last year.

"He objected to a decision I made and came up a pushed me so hard I flew off my feet and landed on my back," said Hailstone.

"I could have abandoned the game but didn't want to. I sent him off and finished the game. He was banned by the county FA and it hasn't put me off refereeing because this is only a very rare occurrence.

"I don't know whether harsher fines would reduce these kinds of incidents happening but I would like the FA to look at how they treat incidents.

"Currently it is based on the injury caused to the official. I was quite viciously shoved but was uninjured and it was a standard penalty handed out.

"Another time it might not be so violent but the official could break a wrist and the penalty would be more harsh."