Football Thread 23-24 Part 2: The VAR Apocalypse

[hermitical]

It's almost as if cultural norms change over time, but no it suits your misanthropic mindset to think that footballers are just stupid

This....

I guess the players on here always celebrate a goal with nothing more than a firm handshake, like they used to in the good old days. Or is that a step too far?

Perhaps blokes should go back to keeping emotions buried deep deep down inside.

[Thursday]

They're doing it because they want to emulate some of their hero's who took their shirt off like the rapist Christiano Ronaldo.

[phantom_power]

"Uncontrollable urge" implies it's beyond a cultural norm. It's not an uncontrollable urge, they do it because they're told to by their agents to build 'their brand' and get on the back pages.

Oh fuck off. As if a player is thinking of that when they score an important goal. They do it because they get overcome by emotion and the current cultural norm is to take your shirt off. Obviously I don't mean a completely uncontrollable urge, but rather something that bypasses the rational brain so to equate it to intelligence is just snobbery

[kalowski]

Just watched it again. He doesn't rip his shirt off with passion. He calmly removes it and holds it up. It's not passion, it's fucking bollocks.

[bgmnts]

Yeah it's just what is done, footballers do it because other footballers do it.

Like not celebrating when you score against a previous employer, or crossing yourself when you get subbed on.

[checkoutgirl]

I believe it's somehow preferable to pointing two fingers upwards while looking to the sky as if to thank god. There seemed to be a craze in the nineties of individual celebrations like the famous Gazza water bottle dentist chair and the Robbie Fowler snorting the touchline or even the Gazza orangemen pipe mime, things like that. What happened to them? And are there cards for them? And are people on here equally puritanical as they are to the shirt removal?

[C_Larence]

Bring back backflipping

[monkfromhavana]

Ditto the fans. When their team score a goal they should politely clap for a period not exceeding 30 seconds instead of all this fearful bellowing and flailing.

[phes]

What happened to them? And are there cards for them? And are people on here equally puritanical as they are to the shirt removal?

As previously mentioned, sponsors want nice, clear, uncontroversial celebrations. There's probably guidelines and fine structures

[Uncle TechTip]

So on the one hand, the badge is everything and I wear it with pride, but on the other when I'm really excited and particularly full of pride I take it off. This is why footballers have a bad reputation when it comes to 'thinking'

[AllisonSays]

Trying to parse a celebration rationally is stupid. On the other hand, we can think about the legislation governing celebration rationally, and as it stands it doesn't make any sense, at least if I remember it correctly. Removing your shirt is a yellow card because it's 'inciting the crowd', but you can do lots of other things - including standing on the advertising hoardings holding your arms out, or whatever, which I've definitely seen, or cupping your ears provocatively, a la the huge-eared Stephen Fletcher - and not get booked.

I like over-celebration, needle, silly choreographed things, throwing the shirt into the crowd, that Cantona thing where you just kind of stick your chest out, Adebayor sliding up to the Arsenal fans ... it's theatre, isn't it, which is ultimately a big part of what live football is. None of it should be under the purview of referees unless you stick one on a fan or another player, or (arguably) get your cock, balls or arse out.

On another note, delighted for Amad, he looked like a superstar at Sunderland last year.

[Captain Z]

Perhaps the sport could be reinvigorated if players had to remove one item of clothing for every goal scored. Someone down to their pants and socks through on goal but desperately trying to pass to a teammate.

[checkoutgirl]

Perhaps the sport could be reinvigorated if players had to remove one item of clothing for every goal scored. Someone down to their pants and socks through on goal but desperately trying to pass to a teammate.

Not if they were an exhibitionist. If it was ancient Greece the entire team would be stark bollock naked running out of the tunnel. The way god intended.