Yellow Cards for Footballers Who Spit?

By: Daryl | August 26th, 2009

That’s what Christophe Rouillon, mayor of Coulaines, France is calling for, as part of his plan to combat swine flu. Rouillon has already banned spitting on public thoroughfares in Coulaines, but now wants to see footballers set an example by keeping their saliva to themselves.

“One spitting incident should be punished with a yellow card, and repeat offenders should be shown a red card,” he suggested.

To be clear, Rouillon is not talking about players who spit at other players Frank Rijkarrd style. He’s talking about players who spit at all. On the floor, or wherever.

Obviously the mayor of a town of just 7,667 people (bless you Wikipedia) doesn’t have much influence over the laws of the game of football. But Rouillon has sent a letter outlining his ideas to UEFA President (and fellow Frenchman) Michel Platini.

Just how seriously Platini takes Rouillon’s letter remains to be seen. Maybe he files it away in the round metal cabinet with a hole in the top. Maybe he makes it a new UEFA directive. We’ll see.

But it’s definitely an idea worth thinking about. If footballers can get yellow cards for taking their shirts off after scoring, then why not for spitting?

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Category: French Ligue 1

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Shazback

Paul, H1N1 is only a concern for already at-risk populations (elderly people, infants, people with underlying conditions). However, spreading swine flu notably increases the risk for this population group. Footballers might not be at risk, but what proportion of the crowds of spectators are? What proportion of the people that the spectators will meet when they are infected with the flu are? Swine flu can go undiagnosed if the person believes it's "just flu" or is only mildly affected, however it can cause serious complications for other people he will meet whilst carrying the virus.

I'm not really interested in this though. I find "take off shirt = yellow" to be quite ridiculous (although I understand it in extreme cases, I feel that should be left to the judgment of the referee, and not enforced in a blanket manner), and I think this is a similar measure.