OK. I will try to
prevent this from turning into a rant, but an issue I think needs to be addressed
is that of players going down too easily.
It was a massive problem last season and judging by the performances of the
first two weekends of this season, it seems set to continue. All the examples from the past couple of
weeks involve Phil Dowd – nothing against the man, he just happened to be the
referee.
West Bromich Albion
vs Liverpool:
Liverpool concedes a penalty as a result of what appears
to be a shove in the back on Shane Long by Daniel Agger. On closer inspection, Agger makes minimal
contact and the force would have hardly displaced a small child, never mind a
grown man. Soon after, Martin Skrtel
makes a hash of a clearance and accidently trips our man-of-the-hour Shane Long
in the process. Again, there is minimum
contact and if it was not in the penalty area, Long would probably not have
bothered to bamboozle us with his expert diving skills.
Chelsea vs
Newcastle United
The incident in question is another penalty. Torres
charges into the box, leaping over Anita’s leg gaining the penalty for Chelsea. Down at the other end, Cisse picks up the
ball about thirty yards from the goal, runs past David Luiz, who makes the same
action Anita did, but Cisse does not go down.
If Cisse had have been inside the penalty area he would have most
definitely thrown himself to the floor.
These are just a few of the many examples of how the
rules are being taken advantage of, playing into the hands of the players who
break them. In my opinion, one of the
most annoying phrases used repeatedly to evade the issue by managers and
pundits alike is “well… in the letter of the law…” This is essentially just an
accepted excuse for cheating and I think fouls awarded for incidents like this
should be stopped. The rules are being
manipulated and it is to the ruin of the game.
It reminds me of the glitches you experience in football video games. I remember a particular glitch, in a popular
football sim, that meant you could always score straight from a corner if you took
it a certain way. In another, you could run
down the wing, take a shot from a thirty-degree angle and the keeper would just
palm the ball into his own goal every time.
The point I’m trying to make is this: Due to the unfair nature of the glitches, at
the beginning of every match between my friends and I, there would be a gentlemen’s
agreement put in place to stop the glitches from being exploited and ruining the
game. This applies to football in the
sense that the penalties awarded as a result of diving, are comparable to the glitches
in a video game.
My solution to the glitches is to stop referees from playing
into the hands of the offenders. There should be much harder punishments for
diving. I would even go so far as to say,
if a player dives, instead of receiving
a booking he should pick up a straight red card and an instant three-match
ban. It sounds extreme but it would be
effective in rooting out the glitches once and for all.
Rant over…
