Iliman Ndiaye, Jose Mourinho, Paul Gascoigne - football's strangest cards
2025-01-26
Category: sports

Now we can add imitating a seagull to the list of things you can be booked for in the Premier League.Iliman Ndiaye scored the only goal in Everton's 1-0 win at Brighton and celebrated by flapping his arms like a gull in front of the home fans - whose team are nicknamed the Seagulls.He was duly booked for excessive celebrating, leaving fans on social media confused about what exactly he had done wrong.Law 12 in the IFAB Laws of the Game says: "Players can celebrate when a goal is scored, but the celebration must not be excessive; choreographed celebrations are not encouraged and must not cause excessive time wasting."Leaving the field of play to celebrate a goal is not a cautionable offence but players should return as soon as possible."A player must be cautioned, even if the goal is disallowed, for climbing on to a perimeter fence and/or approaching the spectators in a manner which causes safety and/or security issues, acting in a provocative, derisory or inflammatory way, covering the head or face with a mask or other similar item, removing the shirt or covering the head with the shirt."But the seagull imitation is far from the strangest thing to be shown a yellow or red card in football. BBC Sport looks at some of the others.
Showing the referee a yellow card
In a game between Rangers and Hibernian in December 1995, England icon Paul Gascoigne noticed referee Douglas Smith had dropped his yellow card.He ran over to the referee to return the card and jokingly held the card up as if he was booking the official.Smith did not seem to appreciate the joke though. He checked his pockets as if looking for the yellow card and then held up the card to book Gascoigne for dissent.The game ended up 7-0 to Rangers yet this is the incident the game will always be remembered for.
Putting a laptop in front of the TV cameras
Fenerbahce boss Jose Mourinho was booked earlier this season in their 2-0 win at Antalyaspor.Annoyed at a disallowed goal for offside, he put a laptop with a still of the incident in front of the TV camera near his dugout.Referee Cihan Aydin got wind of the stunt and came over to show the Chelsea legend a yellow card.
Hugging your grandmother
In 2014, Roma right-back Alessandro Florenzi scored in a 2-0 win over Cagliari.He ran past his team-mates, past the bench, jumped over a gate and went up into the crowd to hug his 82-year-old grandmother.A steward brought him back down to the pitch where he was shown a yellow card."I'll happily pay any fine for Florenzi," Roma coach Rudi Garcia said afterwards. "The hug was the sort of image that we want to see."
Tackling a pitch invader (dressed in a mankini)
Dorchester Town player-manager Ashley Vickers was sent off in a 2011 Blue Square Bet South game against Havant & Waterlooville for tackling a pitch invader dressed in a mankini."I'm dumbfounded and speechless. I thought I was doing them a favour," he told the Dorset Echo."It beggars belief. Their players told the ref not to send me off and their chairman even offered to take a player off to even things up."His side ended up with eight men - after more traditional red cards - and his team lost 3-1.The red card stood although the Football Association rescinded the usual three-game ban.
Wiping ball on a steward's jacket
In February 2024, Wycombe's Luke Leahy dried the ball on a steward's jacket before taking a throw-in during an EFL Trophy tie against Bradford City.Unfortunately for him at the start of last season the EFL brought in a new rule stopping players from wiping the ball on something before taking a throw-in.The Chairboys won the game 1-0 to go through to the final.
Urinating
There are actually loads of instances of players being sent off for urinating in a game.Salford City's Max Crocombe did it against Bradford Park Avenue in the National League North in 2017."He was told by the steward twice not to do it and he went ahead and had a pee," said Park Avenue secretary Colin Barker.In 2022, Connor Maseko of ninth-tier Blackfield & Langley FC went to the toilet in a hedge during an FA Cup qualifier - and was dismissed.In Peru last year, Atletico Awajun striker Sebastian Munoz was caught on video seemingly relieving himself while waiting to take a corner and sent off.And back to 2017 when in the Italian lower leagues Turris Calcio's Giovanni Liberti was suspended for five matches for urinating at away fans - but his club's president said he was drinking from a water fountain.
Breaking wind
Swedish lower league footballer Adam Lindin Ljungkvist was given a second booking in 2016 for breaking wind during a game.The referee called his flatulence "unsportsmanlike" and thought he was "farting on someone else"."I was standing a good distance away but I heard the fart loud and clear," Kristoffer Linde, a striker for opposition team Jarna SK, told a local newspaper.