Footballers and Christmas do not mix well. With training to consider and matches on Boxing Day an established tradition, players often have little time to celebrate over the festive period itself, but clubs’ efforts to stage their equivalent of the office party have led to a string of well-publicised mishaps.

Police yesterday launched an investigation into events at a Manchester hotel on Monday night where United players had gathered for their Christmas night out. It is the latest in a number of altercations and incidents involving clubs across the divisions. It has led teams increasingly to forgo pubs and nightclubs in favour of private venues or even to travel some distance away from their home supporters, but behaviour has often strayed towards the raucous or worse.

In December 2004, at Manchester City’s Christmas shindig, Joey Barton stubbed out a cigar in the eye of Jamie Tandy after the club’s youth-team player had attempted to set fire to his shirt. Barton, who is attempting to put a long history of indiscipline behind him, incurred a fine of six weeks’ wages (around £60,000), establishing a record in the process. Tandy was also found guilty of misconduct.

Other high-profile England players have found themselves exposed in the tabloids. The News of the World used four pages to detail alleged debauchery at Liverpool’s fancy dress party at the Pen and Wig pub in 1998, which featured Jamie Carragher, whipped cream, an unidentified man “dressed as Ainsley Harriot” and strippers. The paper described it as a “disgusting betrayal of trust”.

Dressing up has not always been the most sensible idea. During his spell at Leeds United and after a drink-fuelled Christmas night out, Robbie Fowler – “clad in full Army uniform” – became involved in a spat with a photographer when the striker’s taxi pulled into a service station in Rothwell. Fowler was arrested and released without charge, with the club insisting that he was a “completely innocent party”.

One of the most notorious examples of boozy overindulgence featured West Ham United – or “West Ham Animals”, as the Evening Standard referred to them. Glenn Roeder, who was then the manager, went as far as to alert local police and dispatch minders to accompany his players for their bash at London’s Sugar Reef club, but to little avail.

Having reportedly amassed a drinks bill of nearly £2,000, Hayden Foxe, the Australia defender, urinated on the bar of the VIP section of a club. Another unidentified player vomited over a table and chairs. The players were ejected and Foxe earned himself a club fine of a fortnight’s wages.

Moving locations has also brought mixed results. In 2002, the Celtic squad decided to escape the goldfish-bowl pressure of Glasgow by travelling to, er, Tyneside. After an evening at Buffalo Joe’s in Gateshead, complete with bikini-clad waitresses, Joos Valgaeren, Johan Mjallby and Bobby Petta were arrested and detained by police after an incident involving a Daily Record photographer.

Intriguingly, given their previous reputation for off-field transgressions, Newcastle United’s players held their do in Edinburgh this year, with wit-nesses reporting good behaviour and more interest in Ricky Hatton’s world title bout. It has not always been that way. At one of their previous parties, Alessandro Pistone was presented with a blood-encrusted sheep’s heart as a present. The joke was that the Italian “didn’t have one of his own”.