Ian Wright slams new celebration crackdown and claims he'd be 'locked up' for what he did

Arsenal legend Ian Wright has joked he would have been "locked up" after it emerged that the Premier League are planning to crack down on certain celebrations. Players have come in for criticism this season for performing celebrations which mock their opponents and antagonise fans. The crackdown began last week after Everton's Iliman Ndiaye was booked for imitating a seagull when he scored the winner against Brighton.

Arsenal's Myles Lewis-Skelly also mimicked Erling Haaland's signature celebration during their 5-1 win over Manchester City, although he was not booked. "There's a balance," Tony Scholes, the Premier League's chief football officer, told Sky Sports. "I think we all like to see celebrations. Some of the celebrations have been very funny, entertaining, but there's a line. Once it crosses over into mockery or criticism then we would need to deal with it.".

In response to the news, Wright shared a clip of him celebrating a goal during his time at West Ham by mimicking Paolo Di Canio's infamous shove on referee Paul Alcock and wrote: "They would be calling for me to be locked up!!! VAR already taking away the celebrations and now this! Kmt". The incident had occurred just two days before Wright's celebration, with Di Canio receiving an 11-match ban and a £10,000 fine for pushing Alcock to the ground after he was sent off while playing for Sheffield Wednesday.

Wright then recreated the incident with Neil Ruddock after he scored against Southampton, with the striker pretending to show his teammate a red card before getting shoved to the ground. "I was at West Ham at the time and me and Neil Ruddock did it as our celebration after I scored," Wright said of his celebration on the Match of the Day: Top 10 podcast. "He went down in instalments, it is embarrassing.

"A grown man should not go on the floor for that push but he wanted the maximum amount of punishment to be given to Di Canio. Come on man. I was at West Ham with him and he would get away with murder. "If any decisions went against him in training, he would just walk off. He would be speaking in Italian and his arms would be waving all over the place. He was so intent on winning even the five-a-side games.".

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