Mohamed Salah’s viral goal selfie for Liverpool was part of a Google Pixel collab? | Football News

When Mohamed Salah took a phone from the hands of a fan at the Kop End in Anfield and took a selfie after scoring against Tottenham on Sunday – a goal that took Liverpool closer to their 20th title – the assumption was that moment was born from an act of spontaneity.
But according to the Athletic, Salah took the phone from a Liverpool staff member in the crowd, who was charged with taking pictures and videos from the stand from a Google Pixel phone, in a collaboration between Google and the Merseyside club. The deal with Google was signed in August 2023 and the tech giants have a similar deal in place with Arsenal too.
While the employee filming content was a deal between the tech giant and the Premier League club, Salah taking the phone from them and taking a selfie was not a planned act, Liverpool said.
Story continues below this ad

BBC Sport asked Salah his reason for taking the picture and the Egyptian said, “At the beginning of the season, I always take selfies with players (who score), so for this one I said, ‘OK, I have to think of something special because it’s a picture that’s going to be there forever’.”
Did Salah break any rules?
The Football Association has rules around advertising, but none point to any restrictions on taking selfies, even if they might be considered a marketing tactic. IFAB, a body that writes football laws, also doesn’t have any specific situation but does ban commercial advertisements in certain situations.
“No form of commercial advertising, whether real or virtual, is permitted on the field of play, on the ground within the area enclosed the goal nets, the technical area or the referee review area (RRA), or on the ground within one metre (one yard) of the boundary lines from the time the teams enter the field of play until they have left it at half-time and from the time the teams re-enter the field of play until the end of the match.
“Advertising is not permitted on the goals, nets, flagposts or their flags, and no extraneous equipment (cameras, microphones, etc.) may be attached to these items,” says the law.
Story continues below this ad
According to the Athletic, Salah was past the metre mark, which essentially meant that the Egyptian didn’t break any laws when taking the selfie.