Arsène Wenger called it a breach of club rules when Mathieu Flamini appeared in Tuesday night's Champions League game with Marseille, having taken a pair of scissors to his long shirt-sleeves to craft a rather DIY looking short-sleeved effort.

After reportedly rowing with the kitman Vic Akers, the French midfielder decided to chop his sleeves off entirely rather than doing what Olivier Giroud did, which was simply to roll them up.

"I do not like that and he will not do that again," Wenger said of Flamini's sartorial efforts. "I was surprised he did that; we don't want that."

In light of this French tête-à-tête between manager and midfielder over fashion choices, we looked at 10 other things players have been banned from doing whether playing for club or country.

Nani's backflipping leaves Ferguson hopping mad

In 2007 shortly after joining Manchester United Nani was told expressly by Sir Alex Ferguson to stop his backflipping goal celebration, concerned that his £17.3m signing might get injured by, say, landing on his head. So naturally, Nani followed up with a double backflip in a 3-0 win against the Irish League side Glentoran less than a month later. Interestingly, the Brazilian striker Maurides attempted to emulate Nani's famous celebration in 2013 and injured himself. So perhaps Fergie had a point after all.

Stig of the Slopes ordered to keep feet on the ground

As a young man, the former Norwegian international Stig Inge Bjornebye was a keen ski jumper, a sport he picked up from his father Jo, who competed in the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble and the one in Japan four years later. When he signed for Liverpool the Merseyside club were eager for their investment not to suffer any ski-related injuries and so inserted a clause in his contract banning him from any of the snow-based activities he loved so much.

Redondo's flowing locks fail to make the cut

While he is no David Ginola in the hair stakes (and let's face it, who is?), Argentina's Fernando Redondo essentially ended his international playing career when he refused orders by the manager Daniel Passarella to cut his hair during the 1998 World Cup. "He had particular ideas about discipline and wanted me to have my hair cut", said Redondo, "I didn't see what that had to do with playing football so I said no." Redondo played only once more for Argentina and it was not under Passarella.

Ruddock pays penalty for piling on the pounds

The penultimate move of Neil Ruddock's career saw him moving from east London to south London and to Crystal Palace. The defender, who had always been on good terms with the buffet bar, had, as they say, let himself go a little. The result was that the then Palace chairman, Simon Jordan, put a clause in his contract that ensured Ruddock would be fined every time he was over "the recommended weight" . "On approaching West Ham I discovered he was a free transfer, although he did have a weighty salary – which was not the only weighty thing about him," wrote Jordan in his autobiography. "Harry Redknapp, the West Ham manager at the time, told me to put in a weight clause. So I decided to put a 10% penalty on the contract we were proposing to offer him if he was over the recommended weight of 99.8kg, which by the way was still frigging huge." Ruddock, reportedly, received eight fines in six months for being overweight.

Balotelli told to get off his bike

In 2011 Mario Balotelli – without whom this list would not have been complete – was banned by Manchester City from riding the Harley-Davidson motorbike he bought, citing insurance reasons. The striker originally bought the motorbike to get around as a result of having his Maserati impounded on no fewer than 27 occasions. I bet City wished they had banned him from buying fireworks, too.

Space cadet Schwarz brought down to earth by Sunderland

When Sunderland got wind that their new multi-million pound signing Stefan Schwarz was considering a trip into space when commercial flight became viable, the Black Cats insisted on a clause banning him from doing so. Sunderland's chief executive, John Fickling, said: "One of Schwarz's advisers has, indeed, got one of the places on the commercial flights. And we were worried that he may wish to take Stefan along with him. So we thought we'd better get things tied up now rather than at the time of the flight. It was a reasonable request. We would normally get insurance cover for the player throughout the length of his contract. And like a lot of insurance policies there are certain exclusions, such as dangerous activities. At the end of the day we are protecting the club, really. It was a little bit of a light-hearted moment during protracted negotiations. But one day it could become quite acceptable to put such clauses in various contracts."

Ferguson kicks coloured boots into touch

A second entry for Sir Alex, and this time Ferguson put his foot down in 2010 over the flashy coloured boots worn by his youth team players. John O'Shea explained the decision thus: "They are told they have to stick to wearing black. Once in the reserve or first-team squad there are no restrictions but, if you are wearing flashy colours and don't play too well, you're likely to get singled out." We're not sure what his policy on sarongs was.

Bremen's tattoo ban is health and safety gone mad

Finding a footballer without a tattoo is like trying to find The Mysterious Cities of Gold. But Werder Bremen might be a good place to start looking. After Hamburg's Eljero Elia saw his tattoo turn septic and leave him in such pain that he was unable to wear his jersey at times, Bremen decided to ban all their players from getting ink. The Werder general manager, Klaus Allofs, said: "I will not dramatise the danger but we pointed out that we, in principle, prohibit tattoos that are done during the season. This is a risk that we have to exclude."

Pérez asks Ronaldo to lead a more "domesticated life"

When Real Madrid's president Florentino Pérez asked the Brazil striker Ronaldo why he could not lead more of a "domesticated life" like his team-mate Luís Figo, rather than drinking copiously, getting caught up in sex scandals and hitting the Rio carnival, Ronaldo is reported to have replied: "If my wife looked like Luís Figo's wife, I'd stay at home more often."

Paolo Di Canio's complete revolution precipitates total disaster

No mobile phones; no fizzy drinks; no mayonnaise; no ketchup; no American fast food chains, no joking or gossiping with the first team within three hours of kick-off. "This is a complete revolution," said Paolo Di Canio when in charge of Sunderland. It was indeed a complete revolution at Sunderland all right but not quite in the way he expected. The players decided that enough was enough, banded together and Di Canio was soon without a job.