With just a few minutes remaining in the Championship playoff final, the ball broke to West Ham’s Ricardo Vaz Te in the penalty area, and his first time shot flew into the net. His goal made the score 2-1 to West Ham, who had taken the lead through Carlton Cole in the first half, before Thomas Ince equalised for Blackpool shortly after half-time.
It goes without saying, but Vaz Te was delighted to have scored, and ripped off his shirt in celebration. After the West Ham players had finished their celebrations, referee Howard Webb inevitably produced his yellow card and showed it to Vaz Te. Webb is no stranger to booking players who have scored vital goals for the same offence, having done so when Andres Iniesta scored the winning goal for Spain in the 2010 World Cup final. But it would be unfair to single out a referee for being forced to follow Law 12 in FIFA’s official laws of the game.
In June of 2004, FIFA announced that Law 12, which covers fouls and misconduct, would be amended to make it an automatic yellow card if a player removed his jersey after scoring a goal. FIFA further clarified this by stating that a player would be ‘liable’ to receive a yellow card if the jersey was pulled over his head, or if his head was covered by it. In the section called ‘Additional Instructions for Referees and Assistant Referees’, the law states that “Removing one’s shirt after scoring is unnecessary and players should avoid such excessive displays of joy.”
>Wait, what?
‘…players should avoid such excessive displays of joy’ is a hard phrase to get your head around. What is more enjoyable for a player than scoring a goal? Alright, maybe if you’re Nigel de Jong, booting a player up in the air is more enjoyable, or saving a penalty during a game or in a shootout is more enjoyable for a goalkeeper, but the whole point of football is to score more goals than your opponent, so a goal that wins a game, or snatches an equaliser, or even improves your goal difference and changes your league position is always going to be celebrated with ‘excessive displays of joy’.
The whole not being allowed to take your shirt of is ridiculous. I can assure you that the real reason is absolutely not to do with over ‘excessive displays of joy’. The real reason is more to do with the fact that in removing your shirt you are also removing the sponsors name from view. FIFA of course would never admit this because they dont like to be viewed as an entirely money orientated organisation. I believe this rule is more evidence of FIFA’s greater interest in the green stuff than whats actually best for the game just like the decision to hold a world cup in Qatar. Good one FIFA.