The first big controversy of the season has arrived thanks to Eduardo! There's no doubt in my mind that the Croatian's initial intention was to engineer a penalty but the contact never came from Boruc and he then went to ground. Did he dive? YES. Should diving be outlawed? YES. Should divers receive match bans? YES.
The problem, of course, is consistency or the lack thereof. Why start with Eduardo? I counted at least three dives from Celtic players over the course of the match but they occurred around the halfway line and received no attention. What really angers me about the Eduardo story is the blatant 'Johnny Foreigner bashing' in the British media. The worst dive I have ever seen was from Steven Gerrard when winning a penalty against Hungary before the 2006 World Cup. Was he lambasted? No, quite the contrary. Ian Wright applauded him for doing it, arguing that in the World Cup 'THEY will all be doing it (diving) over THERE.' Gerrard has continued in the same vein since then, including his spectacular dive against Atletico Madrid. Let us not forget Wayne 'Wazza' Rooney who dived to win a penalty against Arsenal in the 2004/2205 season when the Gunners were trying to extend their long unbeaten run to 50 games. And don't get me started on Joel Cole, Emile Heskey, Ashley Cole and Gary Neville who hit the deck with great regularity.
Maybe UEFA are right to make an example of Eduardo on the basis that they have to start somewhere but this is a very dangerous can of worms which is being opened. UEFA will now be obliged to act on EVERY dive and dish out bans accordingly. I hope they do so; if they don't then Eduardo is being victimised. Presumably they will go after Messi whose violent head movement against Shaktar tonight warranted a red card? Certainly, any other player in the world would have been shown a red card.
Eduardo was wrong and there is no defence but are UEFA really going to go down this road and why have they waited until now? Surely Ronaldo gave them plenty of opportunities to act over recent years?
Friday, August 28, 2009
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