One of the things you'll often see in the build-up to football matches is the sight of players marching into the stadium with headphones taking pride of place on their heads ... which is probably why they are called headphones.

And you will often hear players from older generations bemoan the fact that players are spending more time listening to their own tunes rather than interacting with team-mates.

But that's not the reason Stuttgart's manager Alexander Zorniger has given for banning his players from donning headphones in public.

In fact, it's more for aesthetic reasons than for lifting team spirit.

"The players are allowed to wear headphones on the team bus, but not in public," he said.

"There's a visual reason for this - a 5"5 small player looks ridiculous when the headphones are as large as the whole head".