Stephy Mavididi scored an excellent first goal in Leicester City’s 3-2 win over Birmingham but was booked for his celebration after leaving the pitch and goading home fans
Enzo Maresca suggested Stephy Mavididi’s celebration was “not the correct behaviour” with the double-scoring Leicester City winger booked and eventually substituted at Birmingham.
After Mavididi dinked John Ruddy to score his excellent breakaway goal in the first 10 minutes, he sat on the advertising hoardings outside of the pitch, goading the Blues fans, with stewards having to ensure they could not get to the City winger. After he returned to the pitch, he received a yellow card, as the laws of the game state it is a cautionable offence to “climb onto a perimeter fence and/or approach the spectators in a manner which causes safety and/or security issues” during the celebration of a goal.
Mavididi got his second of the game a few minutes after the break, but was then the first City player to be substituted. Maresca said it was to avoid him getting a red card and leaving City with 10 men. It’s for that reason that the manager didn’t feel the celebration was the right thing to do.
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“We changed Stephy because he was booked and we are away (from home),” the City boss said. “When you have one less player, it’s complicated, and we don’t need that.
“He needs to improve these kinds of things. But we need to understand that they are 24, 25, 26, they are human beings, they are happy, and they do some behaviour that is not the correct one.”
Birmingham boss Wayne Rooney was not concerned though. He is just glad that players get to celebrate without having to hold themselves back over the possibility of VAR ruling out the goal, as would happen in the Premier League.
“There’s emotion in the game,” he said. “I got a phone thrown at me at Anfield! Players have their reasons why they do. You want them to be respectful of the fans of course, that’s what you hope for. I’m sure at some point I’m going to have one of my players do something to away fans. It’s part of the game.
“It’s good that they can celebrate. I don’t mean against us, but just that players can actually celebrate. I was listening to the Chelsea game on the way home the other day and a goal went in but nobody celebrated because they were waiting for VAR to check. It’s good that players can look across, see they’re onside, and celebrate their goals.”
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