SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Boys Varsity Soccer Celebration Yellow Cards

I never said the REF. would know. The kid thats doing the celebration knows i was just stating that if the player is a leading scorer he knows when to celebrate and when not too.

I know this is not soccer related but as a youngster growing up in the Upstate one on my opponents had the most impressive celebrations I have ever witnessed.

His name was Brian Hoffman and when he scored, which was often, he would trot to the to the goal line and place the ball on the goal line and then trot to the other end to play defense.

He knew he was the man and did not have to draw attention to himself by a Billy Whiteshoes dance, he had just proven it.

Soccer is a team sport. What if the midfielder who made the pass that the forward only had to trip over started doing cartweels? What about the defender who reversed the run that led to a score? Let the accolades come at the team banquet. The refs have enough to do without determining level of celebration.

Just my 2 cents

Craig

that's my point (or, at least one of them) - everybody has their own definition of excessive.

if you leave it up to the ref to decide where that line is, you will never know what you're gonna get.

but specify in a rule book EXACTLY what is excessive, and it'll take twenty pages to describe.

so, just call pretty much ANYthing excessive, and it's a whole lot simpler (which is what we've got now)

if you really feel the need to jump for joy, that's cool, just know you're probably gonna get carded for it.

And the point about delaying the game is void for me. By the time my guy had gotten thru hugging his teammates the opposing team hadn't even gotten the ball to midfield yet. Then they had to card him so it delayed the game more. Oh well thanks for the input.

I like clear and concise rules. The excessive celebration rule is very vague. There are a few already in place, shirt off= yellow, taunting = yellow. Give the kids 1.5 minutes go nuts. After that a bench yellow. Heck let the other team kickoff while the team celebrates. That should get back on the pitch.

A few years ago I saw a collge football game. A huge underdog came back against (I think) Florida. They needed the 2 point conversion to win. The touchdown was scored the player dropped the ball and was hugged by the lineman. The ref had his hand on the flag in .5 seconds. The team lost the game in overtime. I've seen rockets and backflips and even an animal sacrifice in the endzone that was never noticed by the ref.

Will:
I have always been a fan of letting kids express their joy as long as they are not taunting the other team, their fans, etc.

For instance, I feel that what your kid did is fine... i'm sure he watches his soccer heroes do that during every EPL or Champions League game he watches. However, I would be willing to draw the line at a player giving the "shhh" sign to the opposing fans. I echo the sentiments that players and coaches should understand the opponent and when celebrations are appropriate.

I think some kind of language such as "a celebration is deemed not excessive if the celebration is moving toward midfield and/or is directed at the scorer's bench or home fans. If the team that was scored upon gets the ball back to midfield before the celebration has ended, the celebration is deemed to be delaying the game and the celebrating player will be issued a yellow card." This would allow players to slide, hug teammates, pump up the home fans, etc. and the focus would be on the exhilaration of scoring a goal and not taunting. Although I was a GKer, I scored 1 official career goal... i can only imagine the joy of scoring a goal in an important game!

Although I think Roger Milla dancing at the corner flag during the 1990 World Cup is one of the greatest celebrations of all time, i feel that is not appropriate for high school-- hence the "moving toward midfield" clause. If it's wet, let the kids slide... if it's dry, let him run toward the bench and point at the name of the school on his jersey.... let the kids be excited about what just happened.

Jason Hamil

I really think it's sad to try to take away any expression of joy in achievement for young players, especially in an environment as emotionally charged as a hard-fought soccer match where one goal can change the course of the game. There is a need to regulate types of celebration that are directed at taunting the other team, yes...but to card a player for a moment of celebration with his own sideline just seems to take the joy out of it. Emotion and crowd involvement are often big factors in the momentum of a game, and to smack a team or player down just for getting "up" can have just the opposite effect.

Back in the days when I first started coaching, we were told "make sure your celebration is back on your own side of the field." Seems fair enough to me.

Goals should be celebrated! It's a players game... let them play

so, do any of you think it is possible to write a concise rule that would allow some form of celebration, while also leaving very little room for interpretation, i.e., if you showed that rule to 10 people, and then showed those same 10 people several examples of celebrations, a large majority of that group would come to the same conclusion regarding it?

i'm not saying it can't be done - i would just like to see it. maybe that could be a starting point for change...