Diving has become ingrained in the game of
football, more so abroad but more recently in the English game. While abroad it
is a weekly occurrence, in England it is still reasonably rare, yet so focused
upon. Watched a game between Real Madrid and Barcelona, while full of talent, is like watching a panto. Tony Pulis recently called for retrospective action against Luis Suarez,
yet is less forthcoming on the subject of Robert Huth, his own player who
viciously stamped on Suarez's chest. There is no doubt that Suarez's actions,
and Gareth Bale's, were reprehensible but no more so than Huth's, or even Robin
Van Persie who treated Newcastle midfielder Cabaye to a blow from his forearm.
Ultimately Suarez's dive does get punished as on numerous occasions already
this season blatant penalty decisions have been waved away by referees wary of
being conned. Some journalists even have even said that Mark Wilson's trailing
leg slightly catches Suarez and his preposterous fall is just a desperate
attempt of getting noticed. Referee's seem to have shorter memories when it
comes to violence and repeat offenders often escape unnoticed. Managers like
Tony Pulis fail to be troubled by this but they should. While Pulis has done a
reputable job at Stoke and I agree with his point that divers should get
harsher punishments, to neglect a more serious issue, practically assault, is a
clever way of deflecting media attention from his own players who he tells to
play 'ugly' football. Teams like Stoke take the beauty out of the game. While
effective, their sole purpose is to disrupt the spectacle. The referee in the
Stoke vs Liverpool game can defend himself and say, "well I booked 6
players" compared to Liverpool's none, yet if he had control of the game it would have been worse for a Stoke team lucky to end the game with 11. While Huth's stamp was the only one
of real aggressive substance, countless niggles, timewasting and professional
fouls ruined the game. Now while I discuss Stoke, plenty of other teams take
this approach. The great C Ronaldo suffered the same treatment on a regular
basis and then instead of condemning teams who go out to break him in two,
manager's criticize him for occasionally diving.
Let us not forget that diving in Spain, for example, is a
weekly occurrence, yet we call Spanish football beautiful and technical. I
personally think Suarez should leave the Premier League for a Spanish club as
his game would suit it more and he would not be constantly vilified. While the
English media claim foreign players are the catalyst behind diving let us not
forget our own. Wayne Rooney, Gareth Bale, Gareth Barry and Steven Taylor to
name a few. Despite being THE man when it comes to theatrics Drogba still
didn't get vilified the way Suarez does. It begs the question, what is the media's issue with Suarez? And why diving get main headlines?
In my mind the laws on tackling and goal line technology are
a bigger issue, along with consistency. Technology because too many cases are
wrongly closed when it comes to the ball crossing the line. Clarity could be
given to fans, referee's and players. Tackling as I am of the belief of if you
win the ball is it no foul, let alone a sending off. Going back to basics
football is a contact sport, while we don't want to see injuries they happen.
It riles me when things like the Ramsey injury happen, which was an accident
from the distraught Ryan Shawcross, and manager Arsene Wenger comes out blasting
Shawcross and saying he should never play football again. There is a big
difference between going in hard and going in to get the man. Vicious fouls
where there is intent to purely hurt the man should be sanctioned much harder, and
of course all fans want to see consistency. If someone gets sent off for a two
footed challenge then all two footed challenges should face the same penalty,
or none. The 'reckless' tackle rule only allows referee's to have bias
interpretation, leading to inconsistency.
So back to my original point, while I hate diving as well
the coverage it receives is ridiculously out of proportion, it has been
happening for years and the great players are normally guilty of such acts. Harsher bans would indeed help cut it out and I am fully behind that. What I am looking for is consistency and fairness, something I don't believe football is getting at the moment.
