Comment: There should be no penalty for joy in a world where it’s so hard to find

What on earth is the world coming to when celebrating a goal, the biggest joy in the game, the sensation we all wait so desperately for and the very bedrock of what makes football so addictive, is suddenly deemed a crime?

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has been charged with misconduct by the Football Association for running onto the field to celebrate a last-minute winner in a dramatic and passionate Merseyside derby against Everton.

The same weekend, Lucas Torreira was booked for taking off his shirt in sheer jubilation after scoring a wonderful goal against Spurs, his first ever for the club, in a pulsating North London derby.

Meanwhile, Tottenham and Arsenal both face charges after Eric Dier (who was also booked) was accused of deliberately celebrating his equalising goal, in front of Arsenal fans at the Emirates — sparking an on-pitch melee because so many people were ‘offended’.

Those kind of ‘incidents’ should be remembered as iconic moments which lit up one of most exciting, passionate and dramatic Sundays we have seen for a long time in the Premier League — and in days gone by they would be appearing as posters in Shoot or Match magazine and plastered across the walls of children’s bedrooms from Dublin to Durban.

Now, sadly, the only poster is the one going up in the disciplinary department of The FA, listing those on the crime sheet for enjoying their football a little too much.

Perhaps it’s a reflection of a modern society in which social media has encouraged people to get far too angry over far too little — and far too quickly. But does football really have to follow suit?

Some sense of perspective is needed when it comes to scoring goals because anyone who has ever scored one — or celebrated one — knows that self-control goes out the window and that when sheer jubilation takes over everything else, just for a second, is totally forgotten. All the cares of the world, all your own problems, all the injustice of the system — all wiped out for one glorious moment.

Torreira celebrates his goal.

“I have to apologise because I didn’t want to be disrespectful — but I couldn’t stop myself,” Klopp said on Sunday. “If I could describe how I felt when the goal went in, then I would have control over it. We don’t want to look for excuses but that’s how it is.”

Every fan, even Everton ones if they are totally honest, can empathise with those words and relate them back to themselves. That kind of emotion is what makes us human and what helps football connect with people so meaningfully.

Everton counterpart Marco Silva said he had no issue with Klopp’s actions, admitting: “If we scored that goal and had been so lucky I might have done the same.”

So how on earth did BBC pundit Danny Mills find it ‘absolutely shocking’ and how come those at the Football Association seem to agree?

Brighton manager and Republic legend Chris Hughton, possibly the calmest man in football, is one of the names who has jumped to Klopp’s defence, and makes a good case responding to the criticism the German has faced.

“I hope it doesn’t stop what we saw on Sunday because emotion is a big part of the game and you don’t want to take the emotion out of the game,” he said, ahead of his own ‘derby’ against Crystal Palace tonight.

“Jurgen is a very emotional coach and these things happen for that exact reason. It’s the last minute of a game and probably you’ve got to listen to what Jurgen has said afterwards, which was he almost had no control of what he did.”

Hughton was also watching the North London derby intensely, of course, having spent so many years at White Hart Lane in his playing career, and he defended the celebrations of the Spurs team in the first half of that 4-2 defeat.

“Of course we have to think about the safety of the crowd and we want to encourage as many people and families to come and watch football as possible. So I do understand,” he said. “If it’s deemed there was any wrongdoing, then the authorities should do the appropriate thing. But I wouldn’t want it to stop it happening again, because that’s a big part of what we do in football.”

At least somebody seems to be talking sense. Let’s save our ire for the disgraceful fan who threw a banana skin at Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang at the Emirates (and who has, thankfully and deservedly, since been arrested) and leave players and managers to celebrate unrestricted and unfettered. There should be no penalty on joy, especially in a world where it’s so hard to find.