Hungary v England - Southgate should drop Raheem Sterling

[Notts78]

Monkey noises are more disgraceful, and even more disgraceful is the way UEFA have tackled it.



Totally irrelevant. The question is 'Do you think it is acceptable for football players to remove their shirt to display a personal message knowing that it will result in them getting a yellow card'?

No cherry-picking of emotive examples, just a simple yes or no.

It doesn’t bother me. Players have been doing it for years.

[Elite_Pie]

It doesn’t bother me. Players have been doing it for years.

Would it bother you if it cost Notts promotion?

[Notts78]

Would it bother you if it cost Notts promotion?

No. There are so many other things that happen over the course of a season, attributing that one draw or loss as a result of a sending off, regardless of the cause is ridiculous.
The answer would still be No if it was a play off final.
Is this the only booking that gets your goat?

[Elite_Pie]

No. There are so many other things that happen over the course of a season, attributing that one draw or loss as a result of a sending off, regardless of the cause is ridiculous.
The answer would still be No if it was a play off final.

In that case we'll have to agree to differ.

Is this the only booking that gets your goat?

It gets my goat more than any other because the laws of the game are specific - if you remove your shirt to celebrate you will be given a yellow card. The cause doesn't matter to referees, they quite rightly have no choice.

[LaxtonLad]

You could search the press to find out what his message was, it wasn't shown on the TV so it didn't really do any good apart from showing up Stirling as a numpty. Whatever the message was is irrelevant now so all it's achieved is a booking for him, if it was just "Happy birthday mum" then the fool wants dropping as well.

Elite's points are valid though, and would Stirling have ripped his shirt off if he had already been booked? Suppose he'd scored again, shirt off again? Was his message that important? If his virtue signalling was so important to gain a yellow, then it surely was.

[i961pie]

Did Southgate know about it beforehand I wonder?

[crazyfists]

Would it bother you if it cost Notts promotion?

Interesting question, for me I'd be furious but I have anger issues. Some players make mistakes that costs the team like Gerrards slip but to lose due to someone's stupidity then yeah they get what's coming to them.

[Chicken Balti Pie]

There are so many examples of players who have done what you are protesting against. A couple that really stand out - Billy Sharps message in remembrance to his son - Jason Sancho ‘Justice for George Floyd’.
Are they disgraceful? Should they be dropped? Are they selfish?

What are your thoughts on players taking the knee? Surely, players at the top can take knees in the back garden and send the picture/video via Twitter or Instagram?

The Billy Sharp message was the only one that was totally understandable. He played a game just hours after such an horrific event and was obviously running on emotion, even the opposition and referee agreed that it was appropriate to not book him.

As for everyone else, it's pure stupidity. The whole point of the yellow card for removing your shirt was because of players using it to show political messages, so in the case of Sancho, it was exactly what the rule was bought in for. Players have massive social media reach now, use that if you want to get a message across, leave the 90 minutes of football for football.

In Sterling's case, I thought his initial message was that of love for Steffi Graf but it turns out it wasn't. I totally agree with Elite here, it was stupid and he should be disciplined. Too many players on stupid amounts of money need to start taking responsibility

[laddo]

Hold on this was a world cup qualifier in a group we will stroll, not a title decider. If he had been booked again later on that game would he have missed the home game against Andorra? Oh no! How would we cope lol

I trust in Gareth's man management skills which have been exemplary to date whilst the England manager. If he didn't know about it and it really infuriated him that Sterling had received an unnecessary booking then he would have been quickly substituted. He wasn't he stayed on to the end.

Pitch invader, flare thrown onto the pitch, monkey noises and drinks thrown at and hit players and the disgraceful part to pick out and the numpty(?) is Sterling getting booked for revealing a message on a T-shirt.

Ermmmm ok then. Carry on......

[LaxtonLad]

All behaviour irrelevant to the original post but you do have a point, the referee should have booked the lot of them - especially those who took their shirts off.