Clamping down on 'air cards'

Does it irritate you? I know it irritates me. When players get fouled they or some of their team mates immediately turn to the referee and wave their hand, gesturing that the player who committed the foul must receive a yellow card (minimum). The antic of players waving such an 'air card' crept into our game in the 1990s and, at that time, referees were quick to stamp on it and issue a yellow card to the 'air card' waver. And then players seemed to take stock of the situation and the practice stopped.

That is, until recent seasons, when the dastardly act crept back into our game, seemingly after the 2020 'Covid' World Cup tournament held in Qatar in 2021.

A few years ago, I wrote an article for a Cray Wanderers matchday programme, about this annoying action that has again crept into our domestic game of football, mainly via international players who seem to 'get away with it' in their own countries' leagues.

Referees are now starting to get tough again on the players that wave the 'air card' in the direction of the match official. Under the catagories of (a) dissent by word or action or (b) unsporting behaviour, referees now show a real yellow card to the perpetrator of the 'air card' while the player who committed the foul rightly or wrongly sometimes escapes scot free. 

In my days as a referee, 'unsporting behaviour' was known as 'ungentlemanly conduct' but, in all my years of officiating in games I do not recall ever having to show a yellow card or administer a caution to a player for waving an 'air card' or calling for an opponent to be cautioned. However, it is one aspect of the game in which there is no room for it, it is not required or necessary and hopefully if referees keep on top of it then we can only hope the practice (or malpractice) will be eradicated from the game.

Trevor Mulligan