...goes to this guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaN51Yk42dk After the game he said he took his shirt off because it was so cold that night.
I always thought you only got booked if you took your shirt off and did not have an under garment on! Obviously not
the whole rule is stupid and brings the game into disrepute. shame on refs for implementing such stupidity.
...and for ignoring rules that actually matter. Such as the keeper being allowed to hold the ball all night if he wants while his team are winning 1-0 in the last minute. Oh and backpasses, that rule might as well not exist now.
I believe it's classed as unsporting behaviour by trying to hide your identity*, so an undershirt is irrelevent unless the under shirt is just another shirt (someone should do that and see if they get booked). *It's still a load of bollocks, but explains why the unders makes no difference. They did add something about doing a Ravanelli being a booking if you had a message written on the unders as well, not sure if they dropped it though because Ballotelli got away with it last week. As someone else said, thankfully the referee let it go on Tuesday night with Sharp.
The rule is based on offending people, therefore it's up to the referee to decide whether the player is offending anyone by taking his shirt off. Who would seriously get offended by that guy taking his shirt off to reveal a blue skin when being substituted? Ridiculous!
I think its less to do with what may or may not be underneath the shirt More likely the shirt sponsors wont be happy if everytime a player scores and is photographed celebrating , he isnt wearing a shirt to show off the sponsor !
Can't really blame the refs on this one they just stick to the rules set by the powers that be. If they didn't and just decided to officiate a game how they saw fit they would be binned immediately. I imagine the majority of refs disagree with the rule.
