The Rational Ref | Rational Ref: Time to get serious on 'shirty' acts
Fifa's silly sanctions miss the real issue of what actually is being said in all of those 'headless chicken' celebrations of goals
When players get 'shirty' with refereeing decisions, they usually stand naked in their protests. But when players are cautioned for going shirtless there are growing threads of suspicion that those, including referees, without a strip of common sense who blindly accept Fifa's rule, have the wool pulled over their eyes.
Although the laws of the game are there for a purpose, there are some rules that are nonsensical, outdated or both. One of the silliest rules referees are ordered to follow has to be the unavoidable caution for goal scorers who remove their shirts, pull them over their heads, or use the shirt front as a mask to cover their faces.
A player performing these actions is cautioned for what match officials call unsporting behaviour. However, players can also be cautioned for other offences grouped as unsporting behaviour such as making a reckless tackle, deliberately handling the ball to score or to stop an attack, and diving. Technically, this makes all these offences equal. Who is hoodwinking whom here?
Recent selected examples of silly shirt sanctions include Manchester City's Eden Dzeko who removed his shirt after scoring against Stoke on New Year's Day to reveal "Happy New Year" printed on his undershirt; Fulham's Dimitar Berbatov taking off his top to show "Keep Calm And Pass Me The Ball"; and Mario Balotelli's shirt-over-his-head pose to expose his famously rhetorical "Why Always Me?"
These are buttoned-on bookings since by now everyone knows the ruling and yet foolishly players continue to strip off. Some relatively smarter players have cottoned on and only go so far as pulling the shirt up to their chins.
Bosnian Dzeko took a week to learn this trick because last weekend, after scoring against Arsenal, he carefully raised up his shirt to his chin to reveal his message. Dzeko must have been needled by teammate Carlos Tevez since the Argentine has always made use of the loophole in the law by lifting his shirt to his chin. [Tevez was also the first player in the English Premier League to display messages on his shin pads. There was a time when, after scoring a goal, he would remove his shin guards to reveal the names of his two daughters.