Asian Cup: celebration of the same goal has a different ending – 01/31/2024 – The World Is a Ball

One of the scenes that will mark this year’s Asian Cup, held in Qatar, is the expulsion from the field of the hitherto top scorer in the national team competition, Iraqi Aymen Hussein.

In the second half, when he scored the winning goal for his country at the Khalifa stadium in Al Rayyan (Greater Doha), putting them 2-1 up in the round of 16 game against Jordan, Hussein, 27, received the yellow card during his celebration.

As he had already been warned with the same card in the first half, he subsequently received a red card, thus being expelled from the match, leaving Iraq with one less.

Why did Iranian referee Alireza Faghani punish the top scorer, who had just scored his sixth goal in this edition of the Asian Cup?

The display of the cards (the second yellow and then the red) to number 18 happened as soon as he, after celebrating with waves to the fans and hugs from teammates, sat down on the lawn and made a gesture of eating with his hand. .

With this mime, he imitated the celebration of Yazan Al-Namait, 24, who performed it, along with four teammates, after opening the scoring for Jordan in the opening stage.

The collective act went unpunished: Faghani did nothing, keeping the cards in his pocket. The individual act resulted in what it resulted in: the exclusion of one of Iraq’s best athletes from the knockout match.

It was not publicly known why the referee – who refereed Brazil 2 x 0 Serbia in the 2022 World Cup, in the same Qatar – acted in this way towards Hussein. The Asian Football Confederation (CAF) does not make the match summary available for consultation.

Rule 12 of football, which deals with goal celebrations, says the following:

“Players may celebrate when a goal is scored, but the celebration must not be exaggerated; choreographed celebrations are not encouraged and must not cause excessive loss of time. Leaving the field of play to celebrate a goal is not a bookable offence, but players must return as soon as possible.”

And he continues:

“A player must be cautioned for: climbing a railing and/or approaching spectators in a manner that causes safety concerns; gesturing or acting in a provocative, derisive or hostile manner; covering the head or face with a mask or item similar; take off your shirt or cover your head with a shirt”.

I thought about what Faghani, 45, could have as an argument for warning Hussein and not the Jordan players.

If anyone celebrated exaggeratedly, resorting to choreography and using excessive time, even taking longer to return to the field than Hussein, it was the Jordanians.

None of them received a yellow card. For consistency, Iraq’s top scorer shouldn’t receive it either.

The only reason, and it is completely interpretative, for Hussein to be punished would be for the referee to conclude that his action in imitating his rivals’ gesture was a provocation or irony.

It didn’t seem like it. My understanding is that of imitation, in a playful tone, and the rule does not establish any sanction for those who copy a celebration, this one, that of sitting in the field and “eating with your hands”, which is a common practice, of a cultural nature, in several Asian countries.

I contacted the CAF Media Department requesting explanations regarding Faghani’s actions, but there was no response. On its website, the confederation states “it does not comment on individual refereeing performances”.

With an extra player after 32 minutes of the second half, Jordan, who did not have favoritism in the match, managed to put pressure on Iraq and made it 3-2, with two goals in stoppage time.

Now the country will seek, against Tajikistan, to advance to the semi-finals of the Asian Cup for the first time – it reached the quarter-finals twice, in 2004 and 2011.

Iraq, which leaves the competition indignant, remains with a title, won in 2007.

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