I think it should be penalised on every occasion as it will soon become eradicated from the game. Smalling gave away a penalty for shirt pulling earlier this season. I had no complaints as he definitely pulled his opponent's shirt. Where I did have complaints was that it was just Mike Dean seizing his headline moment, which he looks for in every game, and there have been several hundred other shirt pulling incidents that have gone unpunished since, including in games refereed by Mike Dean.
... but anywhere else on the pitch and the ref blows for a foul ... it's against the laws of the game .. so treat it as so ... it needs to be communicated to all clubs at the start of the season and then enforced ,,, that is all ... there is so much focus on unnatural arm positions for hand-balls ... this is more straightforward ... holding an opponent's shirt is unatural ... do it and you are committing a foul ... (unless Eden Hazard has handed his to you at half-time )
I never pulled an opponent's shirt and I never dived (I was a striker). I can honestly say that it never crossed my mind to do either as I just wanted to play football! I don't know how and when players at any level decide to do stuff like that.
There should be no tugging on shirts, full-stop! What is the purpose of a tug on the shirt, if not to impede the player? It's a foul, pure and simple! There has to be zero tolerance on this issue.
I suppose when you were playing hockey there was limited shirt pulling as you had to hold onto your stick. No doubt lots of shirt lifting afterwards though!
Thanks for the correction, Stan. I meant, of course, to tell you to "keep" pumping that fist. I apologise if my typographical error put you off your stroke.
could someone inform Haig that this is the shirt pulling thread and not the shirt lifting thread, thanks guys
Bunch of girls! You'll be telling me that stamping on toes and kidney punches are illegal as well I suppose?
... i remember getting introduced to some of the 'darker arts' when I stepped up to more senior football ... defenders standing on your feet at set pieces was at least a more manly means of hindering you . ... also remember learning a trick from Mark McGhee in his Newcastle days ... a mate's brother was playing for one of the Leicestershire Senior League teams who entertained a Newcastle United XI during pre-season ... so we went along to watch ... Dave (our mate's brother) was a young athletic central defender and had a storming game against said Mr McGhee for about 88 mins .. then, when it looked like it would be a shut out and an honourable 0-0 draw for the locals, a ball was played into McGhee on the edge of the box ... he spun ... Dave, marking him closely, inexplicably collapsed in a heap during McGhee's spin and the ball was duly smashed past the keeper for a winning goal ... McGhee picks the ball out of the net and walks back past Dave and extends an arm to help him to his feet ... ruffles his hair whilst whispering apparent consolation and makes his way back to the half-way line .... the whisper was something along the lines of "...unlucky son, well played ... you learn from that eh?" What had happened was that as the ball was played in, McGhee flicked a seemingly innocent hand behind him as he started to spin .. with unerring accuracy the finger tips flicked Dave in the nads with sufficient impact to render incapacitation .... Got away with a few myself in the years that followed ... definite discourager to close marking ..
So, to summarise, what you're saying, Bambi, is that this thug, McGhee, whacked Dave in the nuts, which the referee didn't see, thereby enabling the twat McGhee to win the game by cheating (it being the only way that his side were ever going to win the game), correct?
Maybe but imo fans bleat about everything being unfair and should stop picking over the bones of every shirt pull or dive, footy fans are more interested in crying about every little foul than the actual match.
... very close Dauphinoise ...but you appear to ahve mised the crucial bit ... the 'art' was in the subtlety of the flicked hand ... nobody on or off the pitch was aware of what had actually happened until after the match ...to most spectating we thought that Dave must have tweaked a muscle or something as he tried to react to the forward's movement ...
Dress it up how you like, Bambi, it was a whack in the nuts, and it was cheating. What a fantastic example to set!
