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?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
With Dean Richards being banned for three years for faking a blood injury expect to see sales fo fake blood to rugby clubs decline. So if Eduardo gets a hefty suspension for diving hopefully the pravalence of diving will decline.
Wengers defence of Eduardo yesterday bordered on the paranoid. He would have been better saying nothing.
....and if you want to see a stone cold pealty check out Manuel Almunia cynically felling Wayne Rooney at The Theatre of Dreams this evening.
Great winner by Diaby!
To be honest its getting harder to police. Rooney against Arsenal made sure he made contact with Almunia's arms? Is that a dive? No but its making sure you get a Penalty. I think Eduardo thought Boruc would make contact but it looke worse when he didnt. Referees are under pressure as well though, because if you book the top players like Ronaldo and Gerrard and many more they will get slaughtered for big players missing big games.
Managers need to take more responsability though, Ferguson, Benitez and Wenger and all other managers are the one with the power. If one of their players blatantly dives well then they can come out afterwards and say "yes he did dive, its wrong i will deal with it" Its not going to happen, there is too much at stake. Ferguson defended Ronaldo for years despite him diving blatantly every time he was tackled.
After all their self-righteous indignation during the week, it was interesting that Celtic had a player -Aiden McGeady - dismissed this weekend for diving. Tony Mowbray (who I generally think is a top guy) argued that McGeady was unlucky because he was 'anticipating contact.' This is the same as the Eduardo situation! Unfortunately we were again 'treated' to some despicable behaviour this weekend, e.g. Eboue blatantly diving, Lucas trying to get a fellow pro sent off. What about players who kick the ball out of play and then demand that the throw should be awarded to their team – is this not an attempt to deceive the referee?
There is an awful lot of hand-wringing and sactimony around this issue. There's a phrase that's apt I think - "if you're not cheating then you're not trying hard enough". I can't imagine there is ever a football player of any level who has not cheated at some time. The only exception may be a schoolboy/girl who hasn't cheated yet...
The ball strikes you last but you shout for a goal kick. You are marginally offside but the ref doesn't give it. Do you stop? What we are talking about is degrees.
Managers won't do anything about it because they need these players and have to have the players' trust. Wenger's defence of Eduardo (at least this time he saw it) put beyond any doubt that managers will twist anything in defence of their players.
All FIFA can hope to do is try to cut out the 'big' incidents that change games such as diving for penalties. And they don't need to get everyone. I think it's fair enough to ban players who do what Eduardo did when the referee does not see it. Where the ref takes action there's no need for further action.
As for the 'anticipating contact' nonsense, the laws of the game are quite clear. If there is contact with the player before the ball then a foul is committed. There was no contact with Eduardo so no foul was committed. There was contact with Rooney - it was a penalty. I was refereeing a match once where a player had his hand outstretched but the ball flew past without touching it. An opposition player shouted for a free for "attempted hand ball". I nearly booked him for being so thick.
A lot of the nonsense on television and in print on issues like this would be dealt with if players, commentators and managers actually read the laws of the game. How many people involved in teh game or interested in it have ever read the rules. Even before playing a board game people read the rules but never of a game they spend so much of their lives watching and playing.
Post a Comment