In my humble opinion the governing bodies of football have done very very little to tackle cheating and indiscipline in the game of football. This has been yet again demonstrated this weekend as Luka Modric 'won' Tottenham a penalty with a blatant dive against Stoke City.
Modric cheated Spurs a goal and what would the punishment have been if he had been caught? Just a yellow card. There is not enough disincentive to cheating in the game, so players will continue to go down after no contact or the slightest of touches in order to gain an advantage for their team.
It would be very easy to clamp down on diving and make it a real rarity. Simply retrospectively ban anyone caught diving in the penalty box for three matches, this would soon result in players thinking twice about diving in the box.
Sadly the media are also partly to blame in all this. Dorrans of West Brom was quite rightly booked by Mike Dean yesterday for a blatant dive against Wigan. Roberto Martinez fairly pointed this out afterwards. However the moronic Shearer and Hansen stated on MOTD that there was enough contact to have gone down, they were condoning cheating. The media have largely done the same thing with Modric today.
Cheating has become an acceptable part of the game in this country and this is rather sad. It would be so easy for the authorities to stamp it out but they don't' seem to care for fairness or progress. The corrupt and inadequate malignant process known as FIFA doesn't want fairness in football, FIFA continues to ignore any chance to bring technology and retrospective punishment into the game.
I don't want the Premiership to become as bad as the likes of the Spanish league, watching the Real Madrid-Barca game last night emphasised just how bad this cheating and gamesmanship can become if it is allowed to blossom unchecked. There was routine diving, routine feigning of injury, routine rolling around on the floor after minimal contact and no sportsmanship whatsoever. This is not where football should be going.
11 comments:
It has become a cancer in the game in recent years. As salaries and endorsements continue to go through the roof, players feel like they are untouchable commodities. Egos spiral out of control, overrated and overpaid players demand extra protection from referees and, through ever-increasing greed, morals decline and players start to feel their privileged position in game means that they can get away with deceit and dishonesty. They are not intelligent enough to see what kind of damage can be done to their reputations, and the reputation of football in general, when diving to win a penalty becomes as normal as passing the ball sideways. Apologies if I sound melodramatic, but the clincher for me was when I saw a ten-year old boy playing football across from my house diving to win a free kick in a game refereed by one of the local parents. It was a terrible thing to witness.
I reffed an under 8's friendly last week. One kid on one team threw himself to the floor in the penalty area regularly to shouts from the coach of "Referee!!!!".
Clearly he had been encouraged to do so in the past. What chance of wiping out such behaviour when it is nurtured at such a young level? (...and yes, I mean YOU Hook Youth!)
To the first comment what on earth are you doing watching a child of 10 play football that is just someone who live across from you on the street that kind of thing arouse you ??.
sad stories
it is becoming so endemic in the game
jj
grow up
I agree totally, have said it for years. Retroactive bans for diving, and yellow cards for asking the ref to card another player. Spot on article, and jj, dont be a douche. Just stfu.
Diving for a penalty (he tried a couple outside the box late on as well) is the only way Modric can really help his team. He is the most over rated 'creative' midfielder in recent history. His actual goal/assist production is about on par with Rosicky,plus he can't or won't tackle or win balls.
Amazing how Spurs fans glob onto certain players as favorites (Keane, Gomes) who are not nearly as good as THEY think. Gooners loved Eboue, but at least we all knew he was shit.
jj, you are a dbag dude. just b/c he saw/was watching a bunch of young kids play a game of football, that makes him a pervert? grow up man!
and I saw the Modric dive, there was such minimal contact and the dive was so blatant, ref right there, should have been a card for Mod. Then the commentators go on to call the defender lazy. sad, so sad
Modric was clipped,took two more strides then went over......the touch he got was irrelevant.
Give them 12 months.....it will only happen once.
A mate took some 12 y.o's to Brazil,and reported back that their kids have a session each week on winning penalties.....12 y.o's!!!!!!
I live in Australia,and I will tell you this.......the single reason the game will NEVER rule here is because people here HATE cheats,and " part of the game","everyone does it" does NOT change the fact diving is cheating.
Aussies,in general, would rather see someone lose with class.
Personally, I truly would give a diver 12 months,and it wouldn't matter if it was Modric or even RVP.....get rid of it.
This is sad to see and diving definitely needs some new changes and guidelines when playing professional soccer
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