Question:
So I saw an interesting situation at the DC United Sounders match today. The keeper mooned the fans. He did not show his bare butt but he did display his underwear. I immediately wondered whether that would be a send off or a cautionable offense. I can not imagine that there would be no punishment. This happened at the very very end of the match during the time wasting DC United was doing.
Is it serious enough to be considered an offensive gesture?
USSF answer (June 19, 2009):
The answer to your question can be determined only by the referee on the particular game, but it sounds like unsporting behavior at a minimum and possibly an offensive, insulting, or abusive gesture.
It would have been helpful to see the incident ourselves, but a run through the game video by the US Soccer referee staff did not turn up anything of this sort.
NOTE: If everyone who sends in questions regarding professional matches would give us the exact match time of the incident, it would make it easier to give more complete answers.
Just a follow-up to the June 18 comment by a soccer fan that was accusing the D.C. United keeper of “mooning.” the fans in Seattle. The ESPN360.com replay of the game, shows Wicks at 89:45 stepping back to take a goal kick and seeming pulling his shorts down to re-tuck his jersey. Again, in stoppage time at 3:00, the camera show him again getting ready to take another goal kick and he is in the process of pulling his shorts up again (just before a beer bottle is flung at him). Maybe it’s just a nervous habit–forgets he’s in public–or perhaps a bit of gamesmanship with his tormentors.
