Is referee abuse acceptable?

This morning I read that Roy Hodgson, manager of the England football team, has said that Jamie Vardy's reaction to being sent off by referee Jon Moss was "understandable". The BBC article is here (and note that I'm not interested in his opinion on whether or not Vardy dived):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36095979

A brief summary: The Football Association (FA), who employ Hodgson, has charged Vardy with improper conduct for his actions following his dismissal. I have no idea what Vardy said but let's just assume he said some 'choice words' to Jon Moss and was gesticulating aggressively towards him (which I have seen for myself on Match of the Day). Again, I'm not interested in what happened during the game, I'm interested in Hodgson and what he's said.

So Hodgson has publicly disagreed with his employers, but what is more concerning is that he appears to be condoning conduct towards referees that may be abusive, insulting or offensive in nature. If Vardy gets away with the conduct he showed on Sunday, what implications does it have for football in general? I have no doubt that this will worsen the attitude towards referees that is already bad enough. There are enough things that have fed through from the top of the game to the grassroots level that have had a negative impact, and the attitude towards referees is certainly one of them. When I was at a referee's meeting yesterday, we were told that no one in the Premier League has been sent off for offensive, insulting or abusive language in the past 6 years. I have absolutely no doubt that Premier League footballers have said worse things to referees that I have heard at grassroots level and not even been spoken to about it.

It's certainly made me think about how I want to approach this sort of attitude in the future. I'm not sure why Hodgson would even respond to such a question in the first place - surely if you have a different opinion than The FA then you'd just shut up and keep it private? Absolutely bizarre to me.

Ollie
I'm on Instagram too now, @chowerz