After the scenes seen in Senegal-Morocco, Sean Dyche, Nottingham Forest manager, complained about the pitchside towels available to Brentford players
Finding blame for a defeat is a usual practice. The referee’s errors, those of the players, the wrong substitutions by the coaches and so on. Then in 2026 we discover that a towel can determine a football match. It all started with the African Cup final. There, in addition to a tragicomic ending, we witnessed Morocco’s ball boys trying in every way to snatch the towel from Senegal’s goalkeeping coach who jealously guards it and fights with all his might to not give it to his opponents and make it available to his goalkeeper. African legend says that in that towel there was a voodoo ritual negative for Morocco. And we almost have to think that they were right given how Brahim Diaz kicked the penalty and how the match ended. Things that only happen in the African Cup? Oh no, because in highly civilized England, the home of football as the British claim, towels are once again the protagonists.
SEAN DYCHE FURIOUS
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It’s Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche who sparks the controversy. Despite the victory against Brentford on the last day of the Premier League, Dyche took it with the towels. “Those towels on the sidelines: I just can’t stand them. Nothing against the Brentford players: these are the rules. How can the home team have the chance to decide whether to have towels on hand or not?” Dyche is referring to the fact that during throw-ins, to remedy the slippery ball, players can use a towel and this, according to him, leads to enormous waste of time. The regulation provides that towels are available to both teams, but the home team decides whether to use them or not. The fact that towels will be banned in the EFL Cup from 2024 prompted Dyche to reiterate his idea: “Why do towels continue to disturb Premier League matches? They only add annoyance to the many things we coaches already have to think about. So no to towels. Easy, right? It doesn’t take a scientist: this whole story is incomprehensible to me.” Dyche has launched a war on towels, who knows if he will also take it out on the bubble baths and shampoos that players use in the shower. While waiting to find out, we are waiting to know how they think in Senegal and Morocco. They sure know a lot about towels.
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