Speaking on 72+, the BBC’s new EFL podcast, QPR’s new loan signing Charlie Austin, Derby defender Curtis Davies and on-loan Watford striker Glenn Murray questioned whether football can actually ban goal celebrations and whether trying to do so would remove some of the joy that makes the game so popular.
‘The raw emotion just takes over’
Curtis Davies: “The emotion is what you can’t replace. You can stop the handshakes beforehand for example and other unnecessary contact, but are you telling me if you have a young lad coming off the bench on his debut and scores a 90th-minute winner for his team he is not going to get mobbed? You are just going to stand there? How can you control the emotion? It’s impossible.”
Charlie Austin: “Scoring is the best feeling in the world. Imagine scoring a goal as a 16-year-old in the FA Cup and you have to stand there with your hands up like a Fifa emoji. It’s not gonna happen.
“If you ask every footballer, the raw emotion just takes over.”
Glenn Murray: “I just don’t get it. I don’t know where the game’s going. You’ve got VAR, where you’re in two minds whether to fully go for it. You’ve got no fans to celebrate with. And now they are asking not to celebrate. What’s the point in playing?”
‘We are bringing joy to people’
With new, more transmissible variants helping to fuel a rise in coronavirus cases and the country back in full lockdown, it is no surprise that sport also had to respond by tightening its protocols.
The game is a much-needed source of joy for millions of people at this difficult time, but there is also the need to set the right example. A difficult balancing act that players are acutely aware of.
Davies: “The regular football fan is out there social distancing. Hands, face, space and all that. Then there’s footballers, I know they are in bubbles and trying to stick to regulations, that are high-fiving and hugging. It’s bittersweet for a football fan to watch.”