After Manchester United were thoroughly beaten at Stamford Bridge with a score line of 4-0, at the end of the whistle, by the actions of some of the players of the visiting side, it seemed that they were not affected by the humiliation their rivals inflicted on them on the pitch over the 90 minutes. The players laughed and joked and even swapped shirts after the game which has somewhat now become a tradition in football.
Former Manchester United player and pundit Ryan Giggs, however, was left unimpressed with the attitude of the players and blasted them for swapping their shirts after the defeat at the end of the game.
Giggs said, “You can get beat in a football match, but then when you’re getting beat and you’re swapping shirts, that is something I don’t like. If you get beat 4-0, you congratulate the opposition, you thank the supporters and then you get off the pitch. You don’t stand around on the pitch swapping shirts and laughing with the team that’s just beat you.” While criticising the act of swapping shirts at half time can warrant some criticism, the swapping of shirts at the full-time whistle is something which is definitely arguable.
Swapping shirts at the end of the game is symbolic and the ritual is believed to have begun in 1931. It started from a game which involved England and France when France beat England for the first time. The French players were so rapturous they asked the English players if they could have their jerseys as a token. The English obliged. There was no ill-feeling nor did anyone criticise it.
The clearest instances of swapping jerseys could be traced back to the 1954 World Cup according to FIFA’s official website. Jersey swaps thus started as a symbol or collecting the memento from the game. Later as the game progressed, shirt swaps began to interpret different meanings which were shaped by the environment and the situation under which the game got played out.
Friendship and Respect gradually became the two keywords as Football was increasingly used as a tool to dissolve barriers amongst nations or to dissolve political blockades between countries. The iconic scenes of the legendary Pele swapping his jersey with the great Bobby Moore in the 1970 World Cup game showed the spirit of Friendship and the acknowledgment of the Respect given by a great player to another. The image was used as a symbol of racial, cultural and geographical unity for many years.
Iran’s match against the USA in the 1998 FIFA World Cup held in France was in many respects the most powerful examples of a football match breaking the political barriers. The Group F game which the president of the US Soccer Federation called “the mother of all games” happened despite a lot of stumbling blocks. Iranian-born Mehrdad Masoudi was a FIFA media officer for the match but, given the diplomatic and security issues surrounding the game in Lyon, his responsibilities were far more wide-ranging.
“One of the first problems was that Iran were team B and the USA were team A, “Masoudi stated.” According to FIFA regulations, team B should walk towards team A for the pre-match handshakes, but Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei gave express orders that the Iranian team must not walk towards the Americans.” Finally, after a compromise negotiated by Masoudi, the Americans walked towards the Iranians.
The two sides had a joint team photo was taken and then the whistle blew for the start of probably the most politically charged match in the history of the World Cup. The memorable game ended with Iran winning their first ever game in the World Cup finals by 2-1 in a match which was a full blooded competitive but fair contest. At the end of that game, the players of the two teams swapped their jerseys and it put the cherry on what had been a match which shook the world sending a powerful message to everybody. USA defender Jeff Agoos, remarked, “We did more in 90 minutes than the politicians did in 20 years,” when he ruminated on the game.
Thus, be it for the sake of collecting a memento, respect, friendship, a piece which can be used for charity or even as something to inspire a young professional (when he gets a jersey from the player he idolizes), swapping of shirts in football has since long become a part of the game itself.
While it can be said that after a humiliating loss players laughing is not something one would like to see from professionals being paid fortunes to provide their team the competitive edge, the sight of them swapping shirts is definitely not one of them.
As FIFA strives even harder to emphasise on the word ‘RESPECT’, pundits should really stop criticising the act of swapping shirts at full-time and understand that it symbolises that even when you get beat, you swap your shirts to acknowledge the superior performance of your opponent on the night and give them the respect they deserve while maintaining the stance that despite trying to get the better of each other, kicking and shoving for a full 90 minutes when you step out of the pitch you still remain friends with them which in turn reflects your own mentality and allows the players to be virtuous in their own ways just as it all started back in 1931.
