6ft Kerplunk As the refs and assistants are all have microphones why don't they just record the feed for the full match? That way they can just play back the recording if these type of incidents occur. Plus if they think their voice may well get recorded the players may think twice before dishing out all kinds of abuse to ref and getting a bit precious if anything is said back. Actually wasn't this done as a experiment in the late 80s/early 90s with David Ellery?
I think so and iirc it was an Arsenal game as you could hear Tony Adams was squeaking obscenities like a pcunt.