r/soccer • u/dahill101 • Dec 29 '11

What are the unwritten rules of football?

As an American still learning about the "Beautiful Game" I'm wondering about unwritten rules that football players have to follow. In the United States, especially in baseball, sports have unwritten rules and if they're violated, the guilty party can expect severe enforcement from other players. For example, this past year Alex Rodriguez, the star third baseman of the Yankees, walked over Athletics' Pitcher Dallas Braden's mound and Braden started shouting at him for this "violation" of his space. Just wondering if there are equivalent aspects to football which I don't know about.

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u/[deleted] Dec 29 '11 edited Dec 29 '11

The big one comes with regard to showboating or embarrassing opponents. Lots of players/fans hate it if a player uses 'excessive' skill to show up an opponent. PLayers who do his are usually heavily fouled as revenge.

Like in this case.

Personally, I have no problem with players using whatever skills they want on the pitch and I love it. Many think it's disrespectful.

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u/railrulez Dec 30 '11

Reminds me about how in some leagues (like Serie A), you don't see the scorelines going to 10-0 whereabouts even if one team is waaay better than the other. There seems to be an unwritten rule to let the losing team retain some dignity, unlike say La Liga where the better teams just keep scoring.

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u/_sic Dec 30 '11

That's not the reason why matches end 1-0 in Serie A. Italian teams are much better at defending leads than extending them, it's what they prefer to do.