It’s the photo that defined the weekend’s Premier League action and sparked debate around the world.
Erling Haaland reacted violently to referee Simon Hooper’s decision not to take advantage in the closing moments of Manchester City’s 3-3 draw against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday. Haaland was crowded in City’s half, but Hooper initially appeared to indicate an advantage when Haaland fumbled the ball, only to stop play with Jack Grealish cleared towards goal.
Haaland, and other City players, protested to Hooper on the pitch. The striker also reposted a clip of the incident on Twitter commenting “Wtf.”
City have also been accused by the Football Association over how their players surrounded Hooper, with the FA alleging that “the club failed to ensure that its players did not behave in an inappropriate manner”.
There has been a lot of debate about refereeing in England in recent weeks, especially after Mikel Arteta’s reaction to Anthony Gordon’s goal at Newcastle in the middle of last month.
Here, the athletic one Experts give their opinion on the photo and Haaland’s reaction.
It’s a horrible image. I understand the frustration, but when he spills out like that (screaming in a referee’s face, yelling “fuck you”) it is unacceptable and unforgivable. We can all explain the frustration quite easily, because it was clear that Simon Hooper should have taken the advantage, but there is no excuse for a referee to be harassed in that way.
The FA cannot allow him to go unpunished either. Like when Manchester United players harassed Andy D’Urso in 2000, like when Gianluigi Buffon shouted at Michael Oliver in 2018, like when Jurgen Klopp shouted in the face of fourth official John Brooks this year, the game must send a strong message that this type of behavior cannot be tolerated.
It was one of those decisions that would drive you crazy. But players must learn that if they confront the referee like Haaland did (and like Kyle Walker, Bernardo Silva and most of the other Manchester City players did not), they will be punished.
And, short of missing a game due to suspension, I would love to see abusive players and coaches be required to officiate a grassroots game as part of their punishment. I could teach them that it’s not as easy as they think.
Oliver Kay
(Neal Simpson/EMPICS via Getty Images)
Once upon a time there was refereeing in the Sunday League.
The general feeling I had, especially in the frenetic moments of the matches, was that a lot of things could be forgiven during the first three to five seconds of instinctive exasperation, especially when you, as a referee, know that you have made a mistake.
But beyond that, players and coaches should be able to regain a sense of perspective. So the initial frustration, while imperfect in a freeze frame, isn’t a huge problem for me.
The melodramatic unleashing of Haaland’s golden locks, his frantic stomp off the field and subsequent “Wtf” tweet (viewed more than 50 million times), piling pressure on one official, probably requires at least a reminder of his responsibilities. .
For what it’s worth, I’m not convinced Grealish necessarily had the pace to run and score, with a couple of defenders also running back, and a more likely cause of City’s failure to win Sunday’s game was sloppy defending and Haaland’s unusually erratic performance. refinement.
Adam Crafton
The still image looks bad, as does the Klopp vs Brooks one.
I have a degree of sympathy because when you play you are caught up in the moment, it is harder to control your emotions and it is shocking to make a decision that has potentially denied them a victory. We are all guilty of doing it.
However, no one could argue that players surrounding referees is a good thing. They look like petulant children in a schoolyard.
One thing that rugby gets right and football doesn’t is the respect shown to referees.
Tom Burrows
To think that, throughout the centuries, women have been told that we are the ones who are too emotional…
I’m just joking, but clearly the photo doesn’t look good. Maybe it’s just unfortunate timing. After all, any number of players or coaches could be guilty of it; This is not just an Erling Haaland problem. But he does say something about the relationship between the world of football and referees at the moment.
Referees are taking abuse at levels never seen before and we are losing too many in the game for it to be sustainable. At the same time, faith in them by fans and players has never been lower when the risks and rewards based on the outcome of single decisions have never been higher.
Send answers on how to rebuild the bridge of trust and respect between referees and footballers in a postcard addressed to Mr H Webb, PGMOL Headquarters.
@tifofootball_ Referees now have their own television show #referees #VAR #First league #Soccer #Soccer ♬ original sound – Tifo Fútbol
Nancy Froston
Haaland and his City teammates surround Hooper (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
You can’t kill the emotion of the game and its intensity. There is a correct way to express yourself. But the emotional reaction is normal in that photo and you shouldn’t be punished for it. That’s partly why comparisons to rugby don’t always work, as soccer is much more fluid and less intermittent.
That said, continued negative reactions on the pitch and after the match (e.g. Haaland’s histrionics here or Arsenal’s statement after Arteta’s reaction to refereeing decisions), is where you probably need punishments.
In the City-Spurs match, it was clearly a refereeing error. Hooper knows it. It’s a serious mistake, but he doesn’t need to be attacked for it. It’s not that other mistakes weren’t made during the game, like missing an open goal…
The idea of a dissident sin container is, in principle, a good thing, but there are possibilities of misusing it. I recently played in a sin bin game in the Sunday league where someone was constantly and unnecessarily chatting with a referee. The sin container worked. When he returned to the field he had calmed down and did not say anything to the referee. The referee played an excellent match, which was easier to manage.
Cross the line and you should be punished. Basically, that doesn’t happen enough in football. Law enforcement against dissent has been too lax for too long.
Peter Ruitzler
It is an appalling reaction and there is no place for it, just as there was no place for Klopp’s tantrum at the fourth official. This matters, it builds up and oozes down the pyramid, a constant stream of toxicity that ends with grown men shouting at teenage referees in the park at the weekend because their sons’ under-nine team didn’t get a penalty.
The referee has made a mistake, and it is a big one, but it is worth remembering that he has run more than 10km by now, he is not paid hundreds of millions of pounds a week and, as far as I remember, he made the same mistake that afternoon. number of glaring errors than Haaland.
But what struck me most was that we just spent two weeks complaining about VAR and clamoring to go back to the days when referees just refereed and we all moved on. Well, this was a referee and people are still losing their minds and howling about conspiracies.
Maybe the problem is not the referees…
Ian Macintosh
How did Pep Guardiola react to the incident?
City manager Pep Guardiola defended Haaland but refused to criticize Hooper for the decision.
“Sometimes I lose my mind with the referees, but not here. People can always make mistakes,” she said.
“I was surprised by the fact that he went to whistle when Erling fell, but after he got up and made the pass, the referee made the gesture to continue playing. But then when the ball gets to Jack, the whistle blows.”
When asked about Haaland, Guardiola said: “It’s normal.
“He’s a little disappointed. Even the referee: if he played for Manchester City today, he would be disappointed by that action, that’s for sure.
“But I would say we didn’t draw because of that.”
(Top photo: Darren Staples/AFP via Getty Images)
