Hugo Ekitike’s red card in Liverpool’s 2-1 Carabao Cup victory over Southampton on Tuesday night prompted calls for a radical new rule reform. The Frenchman has been in excellent form this season following his £69 million transfer from Eintracht Frankfurt in the summer, but he made headlines this week for the wrong reasons.
Coming off the bench at halfway to give Premier League record signing Alexander Isak a break as he improves his match sharpness, Ekitike went on to score the winning goal after being superbly set up by Federico Chiesa. However, during the jubilation, he forgot he was already on a yellow card and removed his shirt, hoisting it up to the fans in an homage to one of Lionel Messi’s memorable moments.
The 23-year-old received a second yellow card, ruling him out of Arne Slot’s side’s trip to Crystal Palace on Saturday – the FA Cup and Community Shield holders, as well as the Premier League’s only unbeaten squad. But his firing has prompted calls for an immediate rule change.
Troy Deeney suggests an alternative punishment for taking off a shirt.
“The yellow-card rule has come from the International Football Association Board and is designed to prevent time-wasting, covering club sponsors, provoking opposing teams, and all that rubbish,” said former Watford and Birmingham City striker Troy Deeney in a piece for The Sun.
After saying: “To punish players for that is just stifling the passion in the game, making it more sterile, and you lose that pure unpredictability and pandemonium around the best part of football – goals,” the 37-year-old proposed an alternate punishment for taking off your shirt:
“Instead of issuing a yellow card, which may result in ridiculous punishments or even sendings off – as with Ekitike, who had previously been booked in Tuesday’s encounter against Southampton – simply penalise the player after the game. Most people would be pleased to pay it, even if it encourages those who don’t want to pay out of pocket to cease.”
Deeney went on to point out that players remove their jerseys at the end of games anyhow, making the yellow card regulation even more perplexing. He also dug deeper into how the art of celebrating is fading. “On a broader level, where have all the great celebrations gone?” he enquired. “Right now, we have four basic ones that are popular.”
“You’ve got Viktor Gyokeres’ mask, Erling Haaland’s meditation, Kylian Mbappe’s crossed arms, and Cristiano Ronaldo’s jump and spin in the air while screaming ‘Siu!’.” They are all a little dull. Surely the world of football can come up with some better ones, or bring back some absolute belters.
“Robbie Keane’s roly-poly; Obafemi Martins’ repeated backflips. Where did these go? It’s a terrible indication of where the game is going—a genuine lack of personalities that do something new or more innovative to excite the fans.”
xz
