Why do footballers spit all the time

It is not an intentional thing or something they derive pleasure from doing. When players especially Footballers run , the increased breathing rate causes the air mixed with dust , to enter their throat that give a choking feeling , compelling them to spit the saliva or mucus out. Taking into account players who had played 38 or more games in the top flight since it began in , website betting-directory. Skip to content. Every scoring chance missed, every hard tackle and almost every caution by the referee is accompanied by spitting.

From the best players in the world to the bench-warmers, the story is the same. Former Nigeria international and Atlanta '96 Olympic Gold-winning goalkeeper Joseph Dosu shared his thoughts on this issue and explores whether footballers have lost control over how they spit during football matches.

Dosu: It is not an attitude, when players are being choked with the air, they need something to clear their throat and that is why you see them spitting often because they make a run of maybe ten to 15 yards and they need air to breathe so they need to clear their throat before they get the air. It is not an intentional thing or something they derive pleasure from doing. But basketball and tennis players do not spit on the court after they also cover kilometers during games, do we now say spitting is an all-footballers affair?

They have their own rule guiding them that is when there is any form of water on the court, it is mopped up immediately. Dosu: You are killing the game when you are trying to give a player a yellow card or red card because of spitting indiscriminately.

If you observe closely, it is not done intentionally but done in the thick of the moment. We now seek medical help to ask if there are severe health implications on players spitting during football matches, Dr.

Onyeudo: It is very difficult to say what is responsible for that because as much as I know, there has been no research on that but what is important is that when athletes play sports, they are under tremendous pressure because sports demands a lot physiologically from athletes. So you have a lot of behaviour that is rather idiosyncratic.

This topic sounds interesting and I think someone will have to do a further research to fish out what is actually responsible for this. Tennis players usually opt to swallow it with a little drink when changing ends although I've seen spitting tennis players before now.

Snooker and darts players don't usually have the need to. Perhaps cricketers are not seen spitting on television because the players are spread so thinly over the ground and there is so much "non-active" time that it is statistically improbable that a spitting player would be caught on television. It would be detrimental for squash players to spit on the floor as they may slip on it later but they do wipe their sweat all over the walls. But perhaps the biggest reason for catching football players spitting on TV is the style of coverage, i.

Stephen Bloyce, Leeds. I gave up fun runs because there were so many people spitting over their shoulders. Guess who was behind! Bennett, Herne Bay, Kent. IT SEEMS to be a way of affirming masculinity, and may be a very primitive remnant of marking territory - something akin to dogs urinating.

Philip Millard, Almondsbury, Bristol, Avon. This is particularly disgusting as most of the players chew tobacco, and the game is played on Astroturf or carpet. Paul Tollet, Seattle, WA paulto microsoft.