Welcome to the latest instalment in our 'For Football's Sake' series, looking at some of the daft and silly things in football that really wind us up. We started off tackling the whole issue of fans leaving football games early as well as providing some strong views on the use of statistics in football.
After a lengthy hiatus, we're back in the game - this time having a moan about players getting booked for their celebrations.
The instance that has really spurred me on to write this article happened recently.
Guilherme Biteco, who plays for Serie B side Parana, lost his brother in the plane crash carrying 77 passengers, including the Chapecoense squad and staff in November.
Matheus Biteco was part of the side and sadly lost his life in the disaster.
In a recent 2-0 win over Vitoria earlier this month, his brother came on as a substitute and scored his first goal since his passing. A visibly emotional Guilherme celebrated by taking off his shirt and revealed a vest top that was full of images of his brother, breaking down as he did so.
The referee, Wagner Reway, brandished a yellow card.
He was of course only doing his job and applying the rules but a man being cautioned for honouring his deceased brother really grinds my gears.
I completely understand that referees have a very difficult job as it is and there's such a bright spotlight on their performances and any mishap or error they make, but I'd like a little leeway to be made in situations like the aforementioned.
Collectively on the whole, seeing players get booked for their animated celebrations frustrates me. In football, we've got to the point where I believe there has never been a greater distance between fans and players. The top level players especially are on obscene amounts of money - a stark contrast to your typical matchday-going fan. Often you can never get anyway near them because they are in a different world. Gone are the days of sharing a pint with your club captain after the game.
That means that when a last-minute, crucial goal goes in, for one brief instant, a player and supporter can share a moment when a player goes into the crowd and celebrates passionately. In that instance, the player and fan are on level terms, sharing the very same elation.
It's entirely up to the player on how they want to celebrate a goal but if it were me and I'd just scored the goal that clinched a league title or Champions League final, I'd want to be right over to the fans celebrating and sharing that moment with them. If you had just scored a match-winner in a game of that magnitude, or even a gruelling derby fixture - would you be able to contain yourself?
So when I see a player go into the stands and celebrate wildly before getting a yellow card, it irritates me greatly.
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Of course, if we look at the examples of Emmanuel Adebayor and Gary Neville, who both nearly incited riots with their memorable celebrations directly in front of rival fans, then they are absolutely deserving of a yellow card.
The most recent instance of a player receiving a yellow card for what they did after was Lionel Messi, who celebrated his 500th goal for Barcelona by promptly removing his shirt and holding it aloft to a silenced Bernabeu in the thrilling 3-2 win on Sunday evening. While there was no aggression in the celebration as he merely held up his shirt, Messi's booking was the right call in terms of the "excessive celebration" ruling.
Image: PA
But when Hildeberto Pereira, on loan at Nottingham Forest from Benfica, is shown a second yellow card for celebrating with away fans when Henri Lansbury scores a late equaliser against Aston Villa, which is what happened in a 2-2 draw back in September, I can't help but feel it's harsh.
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(Skip to 1:33 to see Pereira's mazy run and the celebration that got him booked)
An even better example of where common sense should be applied from referees and those above them is Andres Iniesta taking off his shirt and revealing a message to his late friend Dani Jarque after scoring the winning goal in the World Cup final in 2010. The fact he received a booking from Howard Webb angered me and I'm sure I wasn't the only one.
Image: PA
The Laws state that goal celebrations such as removing a shirt or climbing onto a perimeter fence warrant a yellow card and while that's probably about right, I feel it's on a different level to players merely embracing their club's supporters - which I've seen players booked for.
And then we've got the case of Guilherme Biteco, who did take off his shirt but was doing it to remembering his late sibling and had waited for a long time to do so. As stated previously, the referee, while being a bit of a jobsworth, was well within his rights to show the yellow card.
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But surely common sense could be applied in these type of scenarios and we can allow a bit of freedom?
The Laws state that goal celebrations such as removing a shirt and showing off their physique or climbing onto a perimeter fence warrant a yellow card and while that's probably about right, I feel it's on a different level to players merely embracing their club's supporters - which I've seen players booked for.
We obviously want consistency from referees, so I'm far from lobbying for every player to be allowed to go extremely overboard with their celebrations as that won't bode well. However, I would like to see some type of tweaking to the rules where there's a less harsher sanction for "excessive" celebrations at the lower end of the spectrum, such as Biteco's.
Image: PA
It's probably not going to happen if I'm being honest, but ah well I've already moaned for more than 1000 words.
Do you get annoyed seeing players get booked for passionate celebrations?
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As always, let us know your thoughts on the topic in the comments.
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Football