Banning hugs is a mugs’ game
The recent passing of Colin Bell prompted some warming re-runs of a fine player in his pomp. One thing, apart from his wonderful athleticism and the farmer’s-field pitches, stood out. The goal celebrations. By modern standards there weren’t any.
A shake of the hand maybe and perhaps a self-conscious hop in the air before trotting back to the halfway line but certainly no cuddling or pile-ons.That was partly down to the unfussy, mining-family manner of Bell, right, but also down to the social mores of 50 years ago.
It wasn’t quite the raiseyour-hat-in-the-street era but a fond public embrace between consenting gentlemen would have made plenty of that generation uncomfortable.
What goes around comes around. The group hug has been elevated to a crime of the coronavirus times, as the attention given to Phil Foden’s goal against Brighton on Wednesday night and the accompanying observations of Pep Guardiola have shown.
The demand for distancing, passed on by the Government to the Premier League, will be hammered home again ahead of this weekend’s fixtures. Apparently, with football and elite sport being given dispensation to continue through the latest lockdown, the right example needs to be set, so the team goal celebration is a no-no.
Why exactly? By now, everyone knows the basics about halting the transmission of the virus. Close contact encourages it. But only if the virus is around to pass on. It isn’t suddenly magicked into existence by a goal being scored.
Premier League footballers are the most tested individuals in the country. Any who register positive are immediately taken out of the squad environment. No-one who remains available to play has Covid-19, so it stands to reason none of them can transmit it. Foden could have taken a full smacker on the lips from his team-mates on Wednesday and no damage would have been done.
If close contact is such an issue, corners should really be banned with all the jostling that goes on – and defensive walls, come to think of it. There is no sign of that happening.
If the clampdown is more to do with preventing copycat cuddles, then that is flawed logic too.With grassroots and junior football mothballed, there is no opportunity.
Maybe the fear is a knock-on effect outside sport but that doesn’t stack up either.As tidy as
Ivan Cavaleiro’s equaliser was against Tottenham in midweek, it is unlikely that even the most diehard of Fulham fans would have felt the need to set off on a regulation-breaking rampage down the street, knocking up their neighbours for a joyous embrace.
The breaches by footballers who thought there was one rule for them and another for the rest of society off the field over the festive period may raise the hackles but they do not change the facts. While the Covidiots should be punished, at a time when football’s role is to provide entertainment, let the players show their enjoyment. We could do with all the happiness we can get at the moment.
As Guardiola said, celebrating goals is ingrained and hard to stop. The implication was that he did not particularly want his team to do so. No-one can accuse Guardiola of all people of taking the virus lightly. He lost his mother to it.
The reality is that there is no need to stop. The hug ban and the fuss around it is a red herring in the coronavirus fight.