The shirt hits the fan – Yellow card for shirt removal? Time for a rethink

I often write about rule changes I’d like to see in football, as many of them seem nonsensical. However, a lot of them are trivial and do not have any great bearing on a game, but sometimes the littlest things puzzle us the most.

One rule change I would like to see is the one where you are cautioned for removing your shirt after celebrating a goal.

Last month we had another example of this. Sunderland, yes that Sunderland who were so far adrift at the foot of the Premier League their owners decided they had to change the manager after just 5 matches, were up against the might of Chelsea, League and European Champions in the past few years. This was a League Cup tie, a competition in which the likes of Arsene Wenger has convinced the FA of its importance so much so that it must be settled in one attempt. No replays, just extra time and penalties.

The game is 1-0 to Chelsea with barely two minutes remaining and Sunderland grab an equaliser to force extra time. In front of their own fans, who’ve endured a miserable time of it lately, save the ‘massive’ derby day win over Newcastle, the place is buzzing for the effort their boys have put in.

Deep into extra time and there’s still nothing to separate the two sides. The fans are shifting in their seats about penalties, many of the players will also be anxious as they will their teammates to end things to put them out of their impending misery. With seconds left on the clock, Sunderland attack and the ball is in the Chelsea area at the feet of one Ki Sung-Yueng. He beats one defender as he switches the ball onto his right foot and fires a shot low into the corner of the net and the whole place erupts.

This Sunderland side has endured a lot this season, they are still rooted at the foot of the table, they are up against a Chelsea side managed by an enigmatic Portuguese who has never experienced defeat in a League Cup tie at Chelsea, yet little old Ki has won it for them. He goes off on a victory celebration.

Now let’s consider this for a moment. When we were kids, whatever sport you fancied, we’ve all dreamed of hitting the winning runs, taking the last wicket, kicking the drop-goal in added time, serving the final ace, potting the black, hitting the double 16 to win a game. We’ve all dreamed of that, and we’ve all seen ourselves celebrate. None of us really know how we’d react but we’ve all played it through in our own minds.

These are the moments of no return in sport which in team sport happen so rarely. The point when no one else can trump you. You can score a goal at any time in a game, but when it comes so late the other team has no chance to come back then you are remembered as a hero for eternity.

If you score a goal in the first half of a cup final and that is the only goal of the game, then you are known as the man whose ‘only goal of the game won the cup for his club’. But if your goal is virtually the last kick of the game then you are known as the man who ‘won the cup for his club’. Ki won the game for Sunderland.

For the South Korean Ki, this was his first goal in English football having been signed by Swansea in August 2012. At the time he was the club’s most expensive player, but he struggled to live up to his price tag and a year later joined Sunderland on a season-long loan. This would’ve been his finest moment in football so far, in fact he has admitted so, calling it a “once in a lifetime” goal. Given all that, you can hardly forgive him from losing control over his celebration and taking his shirt off.

This disrobing has a habit of breaking through the most reserved player’s defences at times when the goal and/or the occasion is beyond comprehension. I’m willing to bet that when Ki was flying over to England (ok, Wales), he dreamed of such a moment. He dreamed of the headlines, of the crowd singing and he must’ve dreamed of how he imagined he would celebrate. But that was all done with a clear head and under no pressure whatsoever.

Rewind to another goal involving a Swansea player. It is May 2011 and Swansea are in the Championship play-offs at the Semi-Final stage where they’re playing Nottingham Forest. The 1st leg ended goalless and Swansea were 2 goals up in the first half of the 2nd leg.

Rob Earnshaw came on to score a late goal for Forest, who were then in the position of knowing another goal would send them through on goal difference. It had been 28 years since Swansea had been in the top flight and in that time had virtually gone bust. They had clawed their way back from the dead and were on the verge of the big time. Three minutes into injury time and with Earnshaw having already hit the bar, Forest had a corner for which their keeper went up for.

Swansea defended it and Pratley broke clear picking the ball up just outside his own area, and as he reached the halfway line he launched the ball into the net. Cue amazing scenes of celebration. The Championship Play-off Final is reputed to be worth around £90m for the winner in tv revenue and Premier League prize money, and Pratley has just ensured his side has made it.

He then goes on a run back down the touchline, ripping his shirt off as he goes. It is quite clearly his greatest moment on a football field and he is ecstatic. He may never get another chance to be the man to score that goal at that stage of as important a match as that.

Both Ki and Pratley were booked for their celebration. They could’ve done almost anything and not been cautioned but because they removed their shirts, they were booked. The authorities claim this action could incite opposition fans to riot and they have been very clear in the punishment for this offence.