Celebrating goals and surrounding the referee – adapting interaction on the pitch in times of social distancing in the English Premier League

ABSTRACT There is a growing research interest in the effects of social distancing measures introduced to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on social interaction, interpersonal relationships, and personal wellbeing. In the soccer arena, too, players, referees, managers, and fans are subject to social distancing measures when engaging in joint activities in times of the pandemic. This paper examines to what extent agents on the soccer pitch have adapted joint communicative acts such as goal celebrations and surrounding the referee as part of social distancing measures. It does so by focusing particularly on interactions between player-player (goal celebrations) and player-referee (issuing of yellow/red cards) in broadcasted Premier League games pre- and post-lockdown during the 2019/20 season by examining and comparing two datasets: games in the last round before the three-month lockdown break (round 29, 10 games, 7–9 March 2020) and the games in the first round after the restart of season 2019/20 with the implemented social distancing rules as prescribed by the Premier League’s Season 2019/20Restart Guide (round 30, 10 games, 19–22 June 2020). Based on an exploratory, qualitative multimodal analysis of a total of 43 goal celebrations and the issuing of 66 yellow cards and one red card in the two datasets, we highlight varying realizations of similar joint communicative acts, thereby demonstrating how agents on the pitch adapt their interaction to social distancing rules. The results show players’ occasional hesitation to gather closely with other players to celebrate a goal and their deviation to more common practices of engaging with others during times of COVID-19, for example fist bumps. Adaptation of interaction can also be observed with regard to player-referee interactions following a booking, most notably concerning surrounding the referee in contested decisions: While players still move towards the referee seemingly crowding the referee, there is, in some scenes, a visible restraint by players to ensure enough distancing between the players and the referee.