Celtic boss highlights a desperate need for reform

Tony Mowbray launched an attack on football officials for the booking of Morten Rasmussen on Saturday. The Dane scored his first goal for the club and ran to the travelling Celtic support. He was duly booked on his return to the field and looked bemused by the killjoy nature of the decision.

The issue of players being booked for their celebrations has been around for several years now, after rule tinkering by Fifa. There have been several incidents of players even receiving their second yellow card for their actions and duly being sent off. Just two weeks ago Reading striker Simon Church was given his marching orders after a second yellow card for his goal celebration against Bristol City.

Such incidents mean that Mowbray will find many supporters for his comments, stating after the game that;

I don’t see a problem with the player celebrating with our supporters.

The ref was probably going by the letter of the law but I like common-sense officiating.

The reality is that the referee had little choice but to book Rasmussen. If he had failed to act he himself would have been penalised for not enforcing the law of the game appropriately. The problem comes from the ruling as referees are bound by the laws of the game to caution a player deemed guilty of excessive celebrations.

Rasmussen’s actions caused a crowd surge which put pressure on the Hamilton stewards. Such actions are not popular at Fifa headquarters and as such the ruling was created. Rasmussen is renowned for his exuberant celebrations but he will need to accept the ruling and be careful with his ‘excessive’ celebrations in the future. If not then there may well be trouble for him if he manages to grab a brace.

As for the ruling itself, if you think about some of the most memorable goal celebrations, many of the players would technically be booked in the modern day. For example Ryan Giggs’ epic goal against Arsenal in the FA semi-final replay in 1999 would have been an immediate yellow card for the removal of his shirt. I still remember the euphoria of the moment as a neutral fan, having seen such a great goal, and this is in no small part due to the excessive nature of the celebration. Such incidents should not be removed from the game and any time wasted can easily be added on by the officials.

Of course there is a counter-argument to this situation. Players know the rules! If they celebrate a goal excessively then they run the risk of being booked just as they do if the show dissent or are deemed to have dived. A booking for any of these three actions jeopardises their team and are totally avoidable by a fair and level-headed player. Yet competing at the highest level means that people’s mental ability and awareness are stretched and for many players the euphoria or the anger can boil over. In such instances the referee has little choice but to issue a yellow card. Perhaps in future a more relaxed attitude towards referees from above may allow for a more common sense approach from the officials.