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The Guard of Honor In Soccer: What Is It And What Is Its Purpose?

04 Aug, 2025
The Guard of Honor In Soccer: What Is It And What Is Its Purpose?

The 2024/25 Premier League season ended with an unusual spectacle: after a twist of fate left league champions Liverpool and FA Cup winners Crystal Palace facing up against each other on the final day of the season, both champions ended up giving the other team a guard of honor before the game.

It's a gesture that seems to hark back to the formal, respectful Victorian roots of association football; however, it's actually a more recent addition to the sport than you might expect.

In this article, we'll be diving deep into the history of the guard of honor and its role within professional soccer. We'll explain the guard of honor Premier League tradition and talk you through some of the teams that have been met with this grand display in recent seasons. And we'll explore whether other football competitions and tournaments are known for using this gesture.

What Is A Guard Of Honor In Soccer?

In soccer, a guard of honor is a mark of respect used to congratulate teams that have managed to win a major title. This gesture pays tribute to the players and coaching staff involved in the achievement.

It involves opposition players lining up in two parallel lines to create a kind of corridor on the pitch next to the tunnel that leads to the dressing room. As the triumphant players walk out onto the pitch before the game, they are greeted with a round of applause by their opponents (and typically, the crowd will join in with this applause).

The champions will walk through the corridor before lining up and taking to the field for kick-off.

It's important to note that a guard of honor will only take place if a team manages to win a domestic title with at least one game to spare before the end of the season.

If the title is clinched on the final day — like in 2011/12, when Sergio Aguero's dramatic stoppage time winner against QPR handed Manchester City their first-ever Premier League trophy — there's no opportunity for a guard of honor to be performed.

By the same token, it's possible for a team to be greeted with this gesture multiple times at the end of a season. For example, Arne Slot's Liverpool were so dominant during the 2024/25 campaign that they mathematically confirmed their trophy win with four games remaining (against Chelsea, Arsenal, Brighton & Hove Albion, and Crystal Palace).

Therefore, they got a guard of honor four times before the season was wrapped up, which must have been a bit of an ego trip for Slot's men.

What Is The Purpose Of The Guard Of Honor In Soccer?

Professional football is the sport that is best known for employing guards of honor at the end of a season, but other team sports like cricket and hockey have also been known to utilise this gesture at times.

Its purpose is simple: to show respect for a sizeable achievement, usually a league title win that has been contested over a long, gruelling season.

By participating in a guard of honor, players can demonstrate sportsmanship and contribute to a broader feeling of healthy, respectful competition across a domestic league season.

It's common across world football, and it's referred to in different ways depending on the context, with the Spanish referring to this custom as a "pasillo" which roughly translates as "hallway" or "corridor" (in reference to the shape created by the two lines of players).

The Guard Of Honor Soccer History: When Was It First Introduced?

The first recorded example of a guard of honor taking place in professional football came at the end of the 1954/55 English top-flight season. At this point, before the creation of the Premier League in 1992, the league was simply known as the First Division, and several teams battled it out for the title during 1954/55.

Chelsea ended up as champions on 52 points, while their nearest rivals were Wolverhampton Wanderers, Portsmouth, and Sunderland, all of whom finished with 48 points.

However, despite this stiff competition at the top, the Blues were able to wrap things up with a game to spare, and when they faced Manchester United at Old Trafford in the final match of the campaign, they were presented with a guard of honor as a mark of respect when they entered the field of play.

Legendary Manchester United boss Sir Matt Busby was reputedly the figurehead behind this gesture of goodwill, and in the following decades, it caught on, becoming an English football tradition and spreading across Europe.

Nowadays, it's an accepted part of the sport and many football fans barely bat an eyelid when they see a line of teammates setting up to congratulate their title-winning rivals before a game. 

Is It Mandatory To Give A Guard Of Honor?

No, none of Europe’s major domestic leagues have specific rules or regulations in place demanding that players participate in a guard of honor when they play against a league champion at the end of a season.

However, this practice has become well established within the Premier League and if a team were to refuse to take part, it would broadly be seen as an example of unsporting or disrespectful behaviour.

That being said, there are a number of clubs that have refused to perform this gesture against their arch-rivals, and this is widely seen as understandable.

When Celtic secured the 2024/25 Scottish top-flight title, their Old Firm rivals Rangers did not form a corridor to applaud them (Rangers fans would probably have not been particularly happy if they did).

The intense El Clasico rivalry between Barcelona and Real Madrid means it’s also common for these two sides to refuse to formally congratulate the other in this manner.

Still, outside of these sorts of fierce local derbies, there’s a general acceptance of guards of honor within top-level football. Speaking in a press conference ahead of his side’s clash with league winners Liverpool towards the end of last season, Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta said: "They deserve it.

They've been the better team… when someone's better, you have to respect that.” This was after he was asked about the prospect of giving a guard of honor to a team he'd been struggling to keep up with all campaign, as his team attempted (but ultimately failed) to offer a strong title challenge.

Arteta isn't the only modern coach to have participated in a Liverpool guard of honor in recent seasons.

Jurgen Klopp's Reds may have been beaten to the Premier League title on several occasions by Pep Guardiola's Manchester City, but the German boss still secured a historic championship in 2019/20 after amassing a whopping 99 points, and even in a season disturbed by the Covid-19 pandemic Liverpool were presented with this mark of respect by other Premier League rivals.

In fact, over the years, they've been given more guards of honor than most clubs…

Which Teams Have Received The Most Guards Of Honor In Premier League History?

The club that has won the most league titles in the Premier League era is Manchester United, and by some distance: under Sir Alex Ferguson, the Red Devils racked up an incredible 13 league titles in two decades.

Their local rivals, Manchester City, have been steadily closing the gap in recent years and currently stand on eight league titles in the post-1992 era (a figure that is likely to continue growing in the coming years).

However, receiving guards of honor isn't just about how many times you've won the top prize; it's also about how and when you do it. Man City, for example, have seized the league title dramatically on the final day of the season on multiple occasions, meaning there has been no opportunity for them to receive a guard of honor from opponents (not that they will have been particularly bothered about this).

Liverpool, meanwhile, is the club with the record for the most guards of honor in a single season. Their emphatic 2019/20 title win was secured with seven games to spare, meaning they were greeted with a guard of honor by seven teams before the end of the season: Manchester City, Aston Villa, Brighton, Burnley, Arsenal, Chelsea, and Newcastle.

Chelsea is the club that has been forced to give the most guards of honour to opponents in the Premier League era, according to Squawka. They gave Leicester City a winners' reception in 2016, and did the same for Liverpool in 2020, Manchester City in 2023, and Liverpool again in 2025.

This is ultimately just a quirk of the fixture list, but for a club that has consistently challenged for league titles itself over the last two decades, these constant gestures of respect may have seemed like a bit of a kick in the teeth for chelsea.

It remains to be seen whether Liverpool will be able to defend their title and add to their guard of honour tally at the back end of 2025/26. But there's been plenty of promising transfer activity that suggests they will be well equipped to do so. If you want to find out more about what's going on behind the scenes at Liverpool, check out our guide to their AXA Training Centre.