Like huge team crests in a stadium tunnel, football's confected controversies are hard to avoid | Max Rushden

"Last week a video did the rounds of Diego Simeone getting annoyed with Ben White for walking over an enormous Atletico Madrid crest-doormat placed literally in the middle of the tunnel entrance which Ben White had to walk into to get to the room Atletico Madrid had themselves selected for Ben White to get changed in."

"Then on Tuesday night, Diego Simeone walked over an enormous Arsenal crest-doormat situated in the middle of the tunnel at the Emirates Stadium to get to the room Arsenal had themselves selected for Diego Simeone and the rest of his Atletico Madrid side to get changed in. The ultimate revenge, announced Marca. Diego Simeone deliberately commits disrespectful' act in Arsenal tunnel days after bust-up, was Football.London's take before listing a full list of people who walked around the crest, or who might have stepped on the side of it, intentionally or not."

"TNT Sports posted the footage on X alongside the both-eyes-looking-to-the-right emoji, which roughly translates as: This is something you should have a strong opinion about. Do you want mine? It doesn't matter, and if you don't want people to walk on something, don't make it really big and put it on the floor in the middle of a narrow gangway."

"The model works something like this: an arbitrary level of acceptable celebration is set let's call it XC. This is normally calculated by an independent panel of ex-pros who have never played for the club in question. The game ends. Arsenal players embrace, applaud their own fans, do that nice holding hands straight-line run to one end before lifting their arms aloft three times. Wahey, Wahey, WAHEY. There are fireworks."

A video showed Diego Simeone becoming annoyed with Ben White for walking over a large Atletico Madrid crest doormat placed in the middle of a tunnel entrance. Later, Simeone walked over a similarly placed Arsenal crest doormat in the Emirates Stadium tunnel to reach the changing room allocated for Atletico Madrid. The act was framed as revenge after a prior bust-up. Footage circulated online with commentary implying that if people should not step on something, it should not be made large and placed in a narrow walkway. The piece also references how sports celebrations can trigger “celebration police” reactions, with an assumed acceptable level of celebration set by an external panel, followed by fireworks and fan reactions after full time.

Read at www.theguardian.com