As Real Madrid’s players exit the straight-lined tunnel and head onto the pitch at the Etihad Stadium to warm up before the first leg of their critical Champions League play-off against Manchester City, something diverts their course.

One after another, each player goes out of his way to curve his route. What could they be so concerned about walking on or over? Has a sinkhole dramatically opened up? Is there a big steaming pile of dog s*** on the ground?

Nope, it’s just Manchester City’s badge.

Welcome to one of football’s daftest new traditions.

There are some aspects of respect in modern football that you can almost live with if you try really hard.

Both teams lining up and shaking hands before a match was widely derided when it was introduced in 2004. Players from a now bygone era couldn’t comprehend the notion of being nice to an opponent before kick off.

The debate actually went on for a few years. In 2012 the former Liverpool and England midfielder turned pundit Jamie Redknapp slammed the handshaking practice as “nonsense”, “an embarrassment” and, in the manner of an old man confused about TikTok, railed: “I’ve never understood it. What does it achieve?”

But like emojis and selfies, when acts are repeated ad nauseam, they just become part of everyday life and people stop complaining.

Thus, pre-match handshakes stay and are now accepted. The problem is, once you say yes to one overzealous sign of respect, where do you draw the line?

Not celebrating a goal scored against a former club is perhaps the ultimate nonsensical gesture of attempting not to cause disrespect. If you were that bothered about upsetting your old team, you wouldn’t have scored the goal in the first place, pal. And what about, you know, the club that pays your wages and the new fans that support you? Are they OK with your first instinct after scoring a goal being to think about the opposition? Just celebrate the damn goal.

RB Leipzig players show a flagrant lack of respect at Manchester City… maybe (Ryan Pierse – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)

Swapping shirts at half-time is another off-shoot that the modern game could do without.

And then half-and-half scarves are the fan version of showing too much respect, but go to pretty much any Premier League match and not only will you see them on sale but yes, people actually buy them. The game has officially gone.

Anyway, at the risk of going all Sean Dyche woke nonsense meme/old-man-shouting-at-a-cloud and channelling our inner faux-raged Redknapp, when it comes to players not walking over a badge — I don’t understand this, what does this achieve?

It is unclear where this curiously over-polite phenomenon originated, but it has become a thing.

Real Madrid showing their respect for the #ManCity badge at the Etihad Stadium tonight. 👏

🎥 @realmadrid pic.twitter.com/52HCnXtaBR

— City Xtra (@City_Xtra) February 10, 2025

We can only hope that the below video is a joke or parody, or that Rio Ferdinand was taking the mickey out of ex-GB News host Dan Wootton asking to be filmed laying flowers outside Buckingham Palace after the Queen died. But if not, well there are no words (which isn’t great for a written article).

Respect the Badge

Ps best stadium in the world right now! @realmadriden pic.twitter.com/ifa6fsRCOM

— Rio Ferdinand (@rioferdy5) May 8, 2024

There are a few more examples, the worst being Vinicius Junior stopping his running stride and leaping over a Real Madrid badge placed just off the pitch at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Guys, it’s not a museum. Nor a grave. No one is going to accuse you of disrespect to your club or the opposition if you walk over something which has literally been designed and placed so that it can be walked over.

Ander Herrera had it right.

But sadly the Spaniard bricked it when that particular incident caused a stir and felt the need to repeatedly apologise.

“Honestly, I didn’t mean to do it,” he disappointingly claimed. “The same as I want my badge to be respected, I do the same for the others. I didn’t do it on purpose, and I say that after the game.”

Former England goalkeeper Ben Foster, of FozCast fame, is not necessarily the barometer when it comes to taking the temperature of the nation’s footballing opinions, but he had it right on his podcast last year.

“I’m not having it. (It’s a) massive pet peeve of mine,” he said. “If you’re going to put a badge in the middle of the walkway or the middle of the pitch where most people will walk, it’s gonna get stepped on. It’s not disrespectful for standing on it, against that club or their history.

“Just walk over it, bloody hell, it looks nice, it’s very pretty, I don’t do it with bad intentions, I just want to get out on the pitch and do my job.

“So Blackburn have got this at Ewood Park, yeah. If Man City or Arsenal get an FA Cup draw away at Blackburn, are they stepping on the badge? Course they are. But if they’re away at Real Madrid they side-step it. Why? It looks good on camera. It’s Real Madrid, they’ve got history, prestige, you don’t want to step on that famous badge.”

The badge carpet at Blackburn’s Ewood Park (Adam Fradgley/West Bromwich Albion FC via Getty Images)

Look, maybe this doesn’t matter at all. Maybe players being lovely and nice is a good thing and opponents should hold hands before they try and beat each other.

Maybe this performative nonsense is just a great sign of respect.

Or, just maybe, we should use the old tried and tested formula of ‘if UEFA think it’s a good idea, then it almost certainly is not’.

Respect the badge 👊#UCL pic.twitter.com/Sbov9YdypP

— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) February 11, 2025

Case closed. Now we wait with baited breath to see if Manchester City’s players go out of their way to avoid stepping on the Real Madrid badge at the Bernabeu on Wednesday night before they attempt to retrieve a 3-2 deficit in the second leg.

(Top photo: Sparta Prague players avoid stepping on the City badge ahead of a Champions League game in October; Alex Pantling – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)