Should footballers be allowed to impersonate seagulls?

Is it a bird? Is it a crane? According to referee Tim Robinson, it was a seagull and he decided to book Everton s Iliman Ndiaye , who had just scored the decisive penalty against Brighton & Hove Albion, for his celebration.

Robinson was confident in his ornithological knowledge because Ndiaye had plausible deniability on his side.

The amplitude of the flaps had more in common with a gannet.

Perhaps he was an African spoonbill, paying tribute to the national bird of his native Senegal.

Maybe he was calling for Angry Birds, an official Everton partner from 2017 to 2020, to return as sleeve sponsor.

@iliman_ndiaye pic.twitter.com/cohVexP8eK Everton (@Everton) January 26, 2025 Technically, as the fun guy at the party always notes, there is no such thing as a seagull, which gives Ndiaye a quite frankly compelling case to bring in front of PGMOLs review panel.

One can imagine him sitting in the waiting room, gently explaining the difference between a greater and lesser black-backed gull to a simmering Mikel Arteta.

Advertisement Richarlison , of course, regularly imitated a pigeon without entering the referees notebook.

The difference here, according to the referee, was the intention.

With Brighton s mascot, Gully the Seagull, watching on from pitchside with wings over his eyes, PGMOL confirmed the celebration was viewed as inflammatory.

Law 12 in the IFAB Laws of the Game prohibits acting in a provocative, derisory or inflammatory way but Ndiayes case shows the confusion around these rules.

Whataboutery has replaced sarcasm as the lowest form of wit, but, one day later, Jamie Vardy avoided a booking for walking towards Tottenham Hotspur fans, motioning at the sleeve patch commemorating Leicester City s title win and reminding the Spurs supporters that they had zero of their own.

Joshua Zirkzee received no punishment for his gun-themed celebration after scoring a penalty in the shootout to knock Arsenal out of the FA Cup .

The Premier League s own YouTube channel names Luis Suarezs dive in front of David Moyes, who had accused him of going down easily earlier that week, as one of the iconic celebrations in the leagues history a move at least as inflammatory, given the derby context, as Ndiayes seagull.

But this gets to another point.

Players should be allowed to poke fun at supporters, coaches, and opponents who have given it out themselves that week.

Suarezs celebration was hilarious.

So was Vardys.

So was Ndiayes.

The Premier League is an entertainment business it cannot sell its brand on Cold Palmer, on Anthony Gordon reproducing Thierry Henrys corner-flag celebration at the Emirates, and over-legislate on celebrations which are not nakedly offensive or discriminatory.

The most famous example is Emmanuel Adebayor, who was handed a two-match suspended ban for running the length of the pitch to celebrate in front of Arsenal fans in 2009.

Having spent most of the match hearing frankly grim chants about his parents, why should he be begrudged for giving it back? Advertisement Everton, as one Brighton-supporting colleague bitterly pointed out, score so little that they have probably been storing up celebrations to use for weeks.

There is probably a line that shouldnt be crossed when celebrations clearly turn into incitement to violence but under most rationalities, imitating an opponents mascot or running towards the opposition fans does not exceed this threshold.

We are hardly talking about Graeme Souness planting a Galatasaray flag in Fenerbahces centre circle.

The risks of over-legislating can be seen in the NFL , where celebrations are governed by a bizarre potpourri of regulations.

Players are allowed to spike the ball, but cannot pretend to dunk it over a goalpost.

They are permitted to jump into the stands, but are fined for jumping into a giant Salvation Army donation pot on the sideline, as Cincinnati Bengals running back Chase Brown found out after he was sent a bill for $5,481.

In the first four weeks of the season, eight penalties were awarded against players for finger-gun celebrations with an average fine of $12,697.50.

One player complained on social media about the inconsistencies in flagging the same offence.

Its cool when they do it https://t.co/dOX1kb0Qap Darius Slayton (@Young_Slay2) October 8, 2024 Arrow celebrations are also banned Edison Cavani is fortunate that he found himself up front for Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester United rather than as the quarterback of the Denver Broncos.

But in a way, this underscores the strangeness of the Premier Leagues own rules.

Manchester Uniteds current striker, Rasmus Hojlund , performed a throat-slitting celebration inspired by Gladiator.

Phil Foden often imitates a sniper.

In a month when one Premier League club wore an all-white shirt to raise awareness of knife crime, it would be far easier to see why these types of celebrations should be banned.

Against this context, punishing Ndiaye is an overreach.

This is hardly the refereeing story of the weekend but it shows footballs inconsistencies.

Part of football is its pantomime.

Under the current laws, players are allowed to be personalities until they arent.

(Top image: Sky Sports).

This article has been shared from the original article on theathleticuk, here is the link to the original article.