Part 25- Hold Your Hands Up

Football has adopted the time-honoured gesture of surrender, holding both hands up with the palms away from the body, to indicate an admission of guilt or an error.

This physical gesture, accompanied by a look of choirboy innocence, is often made to referees in the hope that they will show lenience, but it has also become common for football people to talk of rather than actually perform the gesture. Even Rodney Marsh has been known to say “I’ll hold my hands up to that one” – albeit rarely.

Unfortunately, it is not easy to obtain information on Sir Alex Ferguson or Jose Mourinho holding their hands up, since both tend to adhere to the philosophy ‘I may not always be right but I’m never wrong’. Indeed, in certain circumstances it has even proved difficult to get them to hold their hands out.