Nocturnal 
An Israeli footballer was sent off for celebrating his own goal – and it’s dividing opinion for all the wrong reasons.
Saied Abu Farchi, a 20-year-old forward who recently joined MLS side Colorado Rapids, was shown a second yellow card just minutes after equalising for Israel against Austria in the UEFA Nations League on Thursday. He’d headed home in the 55th minute at the Raiffeisen Arena in Linz, only to run to the corner flag, pull it out and mimic some kind of shot with it.
Some outlets, including the BBC and Al Jazeera, reported it looked like he was simulating firing a gun. Others, including The Guardian, said he appeared to be mimicking a snooker cue. Abu Farchi himself has previously posted on social media: “It’s all a celebration of snooker.”
What the rules say
Whatever the intended gesture, the outcome was the same under UEFA’s rulebook. Removing the corner flag is a bookable offence on its own, and players can also be cautioned for “gesturing or acting in a provocative, derisory or inflammatory way”. Abu Farchi had already picked up a yellow card four minutes earlier, so the celebration turned into an automatic red, leaving Israel with ten men.
Referee Georgi Kabakov took the decision, though it remains unclear which specific element of the celebration triggered the second booking. As the BBC noted, Abu Farchi is Arab-Israeli, which added another layer to the reaction online.
Israel boss Ran Ben-Shimon defended his player afterwards, insisting the celebration is nothing new. “I’ve seen it before and everyone can check,” he said. “When this young player scores, in the Israeli national team or the MLS or anywhere he plays, he celebrates in the same situation again and again and he never gets a yellow card about it. He didn’t know about it, this is his way to celebrate every goal he scores. He’s a young player, I’m sure this lesson will stay with him a long time, he made a mistake.”
Austria hold on for the win
Austria had gone ahead through a Romano Schmid penalty just before half-time, before Abu Farchi’s header pulled Israel level. With Israel down to ten men, the hosts pushed on and were rewarded late on, with Phillipp Mwene converting a Paul Wanner cross in the 90th minute before Sasa Kalajdzic added a third in stoppage time to seal a 3-1 win.
The red card means Abu Farchi will miss Israel’s next Nations League fixture against the Republic of Ireland on Sunday, played at a neutral venue in Hungary. That tie has already been under scrutiny, with reports of discomfort among some Ireland players about the fixture given the ongoing situation in Gaza, though both legs are set to go ahead as scheduled.
For now, the debate over what Abu Farchi was actually trying to celebrate remains unresolved, with his own explanation pointing to snooker rather than anything more sinister. Either way, the young striker will have to watch Sunday’s match against Ireland from the sidelines after one of the more talked-about celebrations of this international break.
