What was the purpose of making this a rule? It's one of the most natural reactions to scoring an important goal. I predict at least 1 or 2 teams will have their chances of qualifying for South Africa impacted by missing key players in key matches due to yellow cards given for this...by definition, this is a punishment exclusively given to goalscorers. Just these past 2 days, we've had Jozy Altidore from the U.S. and Dani Alves from Brazil carded for this reason...fortunately for fans of quality players, neither of them are suspended for the final...but it could easily not have been the case. Can anybody defend the existence of this rule?
it's about delaying the restart of the game. The clock doesn't stop, remember, so anything beyond normal celebration is wasting game time. Taking off a shirt is just one of the examples of such time wasting to get punished. Players taking their shirt off after a goal didn't used to happen at all not so long ago, and no players in other sports do it, so it's hardly a natural reaction.
There were also a few issues with players having shirts underneath with political statements that FIFA weren't particularly happy with.
I wouldn't say that a goalscorer taking off his shirt is penalized with a yellow card because it wastes time. There are numerous things which cause a greater delay than taking off one's shirt and putting it back on (i.e., jumping into the fans in the stands, running to the corner flag and doing some kind of a dance, etc.). I think it is just considerd "excessive celebration" so it is penalized with the issuance of a yellow card. Personally, I don't think it warrants it though.
I just think that with any rules, you want to discourage anything that reduces the spectacle of the game, like cheating or time-wasting. Seems this rule only serves to punish excitement. Even worse, the guy who scores (usually a good player) is then sometimes out of the next match. Nobody benefits from this rule - it's stupid.
well yes, but excessive celebration is only considered bad because it wastes time (which isn't the same as tactical time-wasting), delaying the restart of the game. A yellow card for such actions is too harsh, but there isn't really any other punishment open as things stand. It's not as if you could award a free kick for it, for example. Personally I think yellow cards should only be for playing offences, bad fouls etc, and things like over-celebrating or dissent should be dealt with separately, but without any method in place for handling different kind of offences differently, it can't be done.
I don't see how goal celebrations reduces the spectacle. It's not like a minute running around celebrating is less entertaining than a minute of passing the ball around the midfield.
i read that big companies that sponsor teams are behind this rule . supposedly, they want their brand to be on the tv when the camera zooms in on the scorer, and with his shirt off, there is no sponsor shown. i don't know if it's true or not, just something i've seen.
Something a bit related with referees competing with players for stardom, like when imbalances happen to be disallowed for talented forwards (not really an opinion, just an impression).
The exact wording of the rule in the Laws of the Game is, "Removing one's shirt after scoring is unnecessary and players should avoid such excessive displays of joy." They clarified it in 2004, saying "So as to avoid any ambiguities and facilitate the correct interpretation and application of the Law, a player will be deemed to have removed his jersey - and therefore become liable for a caution - if the jersey has been pulled over the player's head, or if his head has been covered by the jersey (see illustration - Removal of the jersey guidelines )." The law came about not just for time wasting reasons, but because it was deemed unacceptable and overly joyful for players to remove their shirts. My hunch is--and I think I remember hearing some talk about this at the time of the initial ruling, but I could be imagining things--that it's also a little about curbing sexism. Soccer, unlike most other sports in the world, has the exact same set of rules for men and for women. Strikes me as rather fair that if you decide it's indecent for a woman to take off her shirt, it should be seen as equally indecent for a man to do so. (Mind you, I don't think there's anything indecent about either).
So if a player scores twice in a match and takes their shirt off both times, do they get sent off? Has that ever happened before?
it happened to an atlas player about 5 years ago. the second goal was a sliding volley, and the team obviously protested the red card.
I disagree. I believe excessive celebration is considered bad because it is considered unsportsmanlike, not because it wastes time. Like I mentioned, there are several other celebrations which waste as much or more time as taking off one's shirt which are not penalized with a yellow card.
This recent rule came about after the 2002 World Cup. Middle Eastern countries were offended at bare skin (male nipples) being shown after goals were scored. They filed a complaint to FIFA who sympathized with them. FIFA's official reasoning had to do with political statements and decency.
If true, this is utter crap. Should we also have to sympathise with those nations that do not allow women into the stadiums? Furthermore, a lot of players who do this have undershirts on, but they still get a yellow card. None of the reasons cited on this thread have convinced me even slightly that this rule is worth a stinky pile of poo.
The most reasonable, and considering we are talking about FIFA here, the most probable explanation so far. But of course they wouldn't write that in the "laws of the game".
This rule is yet another indication that FIFA is run by idiots who don't have a clue about the game, and yes Platini, even as head of UEFA, and a great ex-player for France and Juventus, probably chimes in and says it offends the people of the Middle East due to his and his son's ties to PSG and Qatar shows how corrupt "the beautiful game" has become. And this is after the Havalanche as President of FIFA years and his ties to Addidas and Dassler. I'd rather if players get the yellow for taking their shirts off, and then showing their assholes to the ASSHOLES of FIFA and their cronnies...