There's thing common believe that players normally cover their mouths when talking talking on the pitch so that their lips would not be read by press. However, mouth-covering among players isn't really to amplify their voice due to a lot of noise on the pitch, it's often used in a much wider context.
Most high-profile players try as much as they can not to make audible conversations on the pitch so that they won't later be dealing with unnecessary gossips from the press, considering the fact that some players have been busted via lips reading. An example is Italian player, Rolando Mandragora who got a match ban for calling God a "Dog" via lips reading
Players of the same team also cover their mouths when talking to their fellow players as a signal to indicate they don't want their opponents to know the tactics they're talking about. There are times some players even cover their mouths when talking to the referees or linesmen. This is now something that has also been extended to coaches who are outside the pitch
Technology has greatly improved in football and the more reason why players always try as much as they can not to avoid getting their names in the news for what they said on the pitch, therefore, the need to cover their mouths.
In the last decade, mouth-covering wasn't really prevalent like we have now. We used to see players talking comfortably with their own opponents or players of the same team but now, mouth-covering has an increasing sight in matches of today
What I notice is that this thing is not so common with unpopular but top leagues. At least in African leagues, we don't usually see players covering their mouth like players do in English Premier League and other tip leagues.
Therefore, mouth-covering is often used to indicate tactics in many sports but footballers normally use it in a much wider context. A player could either use it to discuss tactics, argue, compliment or hurl insults at opponents which can be denied.
What do you guys think?
Comments