Piquionne, shortly before his dismissal
When Frederic Piquionne’s header put bottom side West Ham into a 2-1 lead on Saturday, the Frenchman could be excused for losing himself in celebration of the moment that lifted his side away from the foot of the table. Or so you would think. As it turned out, Piquionne’s rush into the crowd earned him a second yellow card, and the Hammers had to do without their striker for the remaining six minutes plus injury time with just ten men. The disadvantage proved crucial; Piquionne had aided in his side’s efforts to repel Everton with a committed and selfless display, winning headers deep in his own half and putting pressure on the Toffees’ wide men and full-backs, but a man short West Ham had no answer when Leon Osman’s hooked ball in eventually found Marouane Fellaini, who drilled Everton level.
The incident left few involved covered in glory, and I include the pundits who condemned the referee’s decision in that. Pleading for ‘common sense’ from the referee is hypocritical at best, ignoring as it does the fact that the referee’s job is to apply the laws of the game, and he has to do it in front of dozens of television cameras. Deciding not to book Piquionne for what was an obvious flouting of the law, which states a player must be yellow carded if he “climbs on to a perimeter fence to celebrate a goal being scored”, would have meant Peter Walton was not doing his job correctly. He can’t be blamed for the striker’s dismissal, and you could even argue that he should have booked Freddie Sears, who joined him on the perimeter fence.
Should the law be changed? When players dash 80-yards Adebayor-style to celebrate in front of rival fans, that can reasonably be described as ‘crowd incitement’, regardless of intention. However, it seems like those in charge are just being kill-joys when they censure players for celebrating with their own supporters, and seems only to invite more criticism for the maligned ‘sanitisation of the game’. But there are reasons for the guidelines. The Guardian’s Simon Burnton argued “It seems clear to me that in all-seated stadiums, anything that is likely to provoke fans to stampede down several rows of seating should be discouraged,” and it’s hard to disagree. How high a price is worth paying for the safety of the thousands in each stand? This country has a superb record for crowd safety since Health and Safety legislation ‘went mad’ in our football stadia since the Hillsbrough disaster, and I would it’s better we err on the side of caution in our approach to this issue.
As for Piquionne himself, he knew the rules before he jumped into the crowd. Ignoring the law doesn’t make it go away, no matter how silly it seems to some, and he shouldn’t have been surprised to be welcomed back onto the field of play by his second yellow card. Everyone likes to see their players display passion when they’re wearing the club shirt, but that should preferably stretch to 90 minutes rather than the 84 Piquionne managed. If he’d have kept his head, his side might just have held out for three vital points.
