On diving and video reviews
The diving demons reared their ugly heads again over the weekend with Cristiano Ronaldo diving to win a penalty (which Saha scored from) and a free kick (which had no real effect).
Ronaldo has been criticised in the media for his actions, and rightly so. But thinking back on it, diving, and the more general subject of gaining an “unfair advantage” in the game raises some interesting points.
Look at it this way - we’re psychologically wired in such a way as to avoid pain first and foremost. In football, defeat = pain, but more importantly, failure = pain and for the big teams, no titles = pain as well.
Now it’s all good to say that diving is wrong, cheating is wrong, and that you should play hard and fair and always try to be positive and not negative on the pitch (trying to win instead of trying to prevent the other team from winning).
But the test of a belief system comes in crunch time - and there are few people in the Manchester United camp (if any) who would have chosen a 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough over Ronaldo’s dive and penalty. It’s cheating, but when the alternative is losing honorably and letting your lead slip (and possibly the title as well), guess which argument wins out?
Losing honorably is a pretty theory, and some people may go the length to prove it right (and that too only to prove a point), but it’s murder when you put it to the test in real life.
If you give people a chance to dive and get away with it, they’ll take it more often than not.
Which is why post-match video reviews are so necessary - to review fouls and dives and to punish players who break the rules. If you don’t make cheating a heavier, more hurting loss than losing a game itself, then people will continue to cheat.
- Arjen Robben dives for Chelsea’s cause
- Kevin Nolan on diving
- Gerrard is a good diver
- Wayne Rooney - Diver?
- Will the FA punish Brown and Ball for their attacks on Alonso and Ronaldo?
Discussion - 8 Responses
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Ronaldo did not dive!!! he was off balance!!! but the boy gets fouled that often that he has the right to dive out of the way of a challenge if he wants to, either way he was not in the wrong!!
Ronaldo is a fantastic talent and if he keeps getting fouled he’s gona keep diving out the way of some challenges rather then get injured. He is an exceptional player and I dont wanna see him get hounded out of the premiership! he is a joy to watch and he takes alot of stick from players let alone the fans, I can’t wait for us to play Chelsea again so he can get his own back on Cashley Cole, who I must say is also great, them two battling last week was fantastic but I have to admit Ashley did well to keep Ronnie at bay, this time!
Don’t wait man :p It’ll be a replay of April 29th 2006 :p
Ah yes, Diving and Video Replays. As a Spurs fan who had to endure three dodgy decisons from ‘Herr Poll’ last Sat (alright 2 then, maybe it WAS onside…) I would like to agree. But I won’t.
Video replays won’t stop cheating, just punish the miscreant after the event - “shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted” is not a common footy cliche but is applicable in this case.
The only way I could see it working is that if ‘Team A’ wins through cheating and is ajudged to have directly benefited i.e diving/handball in the box to get an advantage/penalty, and this directly affects whether they win or not, then point(s) from their 3 are docked, and preferably awarded to ‘Team B’ that suffered at their scurrilous hands.
Say it results in a draw - do we then deduct the point from ‘Team A’ and award ‘Team B’ a two-point win? Or do we just give ‘Team B’ the win and all three points?
What then happens to ‘Team A’ when they cheat to win a penalty, but it is saved an they go on to lose? Anyone?
Maybe all the docked points should go into a kitty and awarded to the team with the best dicipline and fewest cheats at the end of the season - that would show ‘em eh?
The reason I use points, and not cash fines, or bans in the examples is the same as in the article itself. Fines and bans are already in use and hardly discourage players from doing all manner of petty offenses, let alone deliberate cheating.You’d have thought that six to eight month bans might encourage Rio Ferdinand and others to check thir diaries a little more prudently for something as routine as a dope test.
If a player risked a fine or ban for diving then it’s worth the risk in their eyes.
Finally - Who is going to make the decisions and view the video footage - ah yes, another referee, yet another (sub)human enters the equation. Would you want your team to suffer at the hands of a ‘cyber-Graham Poll’.
Docking points? Video Replays? What’s next? - abandon offside altogether? In fact we could make cheating in footy legal - then it would cease to be a problem altogether. Genius.
I’d like to agree with Jewell on this one - brilliant concept that! “Legalize it” he says - what else can you ask for? lol. Would bring out the best in some of the lads - Drogba’s innovation would be a sight for sore eyes, while Gerrard could then claim “everyones a diver bar me” without really getting a knocking on his conscience.
Fining someone two weeks’ wages is quite different from giving them a 3 game suspension if found guilty of a dive (look at it this way - is Mourinho going to privately condone a Drogba dive if it results in him losing his number one striker for 3 matches on the spin?). In my view we should at least attempt to make the punishments harsher before legalizing diving in all cases! As for your point regarding Poll and the ’sub-human’ committee who will review cases of diving - it may have escaped your attention, but actually, cameras and replays are used in these sorts of cases, which tends to make it somewhat easier to get the retrospective decision right.
I think the main problem concerning any legislation stems from the unclear definition of what exactly would constitute a dive. If a player jumps to avoid contact, is this a punishable offence or not? The way I see it, it would be a nightmare to bring in any sort of blanket rules, and not much simpler to treat each case in its own right (not to mention, impractical).
Ronaldo did not dive, but we shouldn’t expect much from the British media. Rooney dived against Portsmouth at Old Trafford for the first goal and even a more clearer dive was that of Mr. ‘Nice and Honest English Player’ Steven (hypocrite) Gerrard against Sheffield United on the first game of the season. English media is just too hypocrite not to focus on the British player’s diving and cheating and instead magnifying that of foreigners even when they aren’t dives. Gerrard is a bigger diver than Ronaldo, but we can’t expect the British to admit that, can we? ronaldo stumbled and lost his balance and fell over for the penalty. If we count the number of times Gerrard falls over easily we’ll see who the real hypocrite and cheater is.
Sanctioning video-replays is difficult mainly because you don’t know how to decide what’s punishable or not.
Docking points is a bit unfair, because what happens on the pitch should remain as such in terms of goals and results.
On the other hand, cards can/should be given/rescinded, and bans given/lifted as well.
To give an example - the penalty from the Utd-Boro wouldn’t get any questions but the Zokora dive earlier this season might have merited a yellow card. Those yellow cards will add up, surely.
Add similar punishments for harrassing the ref, and make it so that only the captain can talk to the ref, and you’ve solved a lot of problems.
Aray yaar whether ManU take the EPL or Chelsea, one thing I ASSSSURE you… GD is irrelevant!!!