Diving: pretending you’ve been kicked when you’ve merely suffered contact. The development of football has seen it become an increasingly larger part of the beautiful game to up until today, where young players around the world will be being encouraged to go to ground with the ambition of conning referees to serve injustice to opponents at every possible chance.
Players from the majority of footballing cultures would not have to think twice about throwing themselves onto the grass after receiving any sort of contact from an opposing player. However, in Britain, the mentality seems to be completely different.
Yes, there are a lot of British players that can and have been accused of diving, however you will notice that an act of diving in a British football game will always result in a public uproar. How often in Spain, would you hear a manager criticising his own player for committing to dive that could help him to success? Not often, if ever at all.
What about if Sir Alex Ferguson hadn’t criticised Ashley Young of England for his numerous dives back in the 2012/2013 season? We would with no doubt have been surprised and the great Sir Alex’s reputation may have even suffered a loss in some of the ‘British heart, spirit and honesty’ that honest British athletes are, for some reason, seen to have.
Earlier this week, Englishman Matt Jarvis was blasted by England International coach and Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville for staying on his feet after being fouled by Arsenal defender Bacary Sagna. Had Jarvis gone down, he would have almost certainly earned his side a penalty. Neville, 39, said that, “he should have gone down. Well done, your team haven’t won a game. You can either be an angel and do what Matt Jarvis did and get a pat on the back off his nan when he goes home tonight, or he can win his team a penalty.”
The criticism of Jarvis seemed harsh from Neville, unexpected too given how the British seem to always want players, especially of their own nation, to act with ‘dignity’ and honesty.
For me, Jarvis going down would have been acceptable. The Hammers star clearly was fouled, and by taking a tumble would have only been giving referee Kevin Friend a clearer perspective of that. Of course in the perfect scenario referees would give penalties when players are fouled but manage to stay upright.
This leaves you suspecting that perhaps referees are to blame for the massive role diving now plays in the football that is played today. After reflecting his decision to not take to the grass, Jarvis now regrets that he was honest rather than clever as his side ended up losing 3-1. The midfielder said “maybe I should be a bit cleverer and do what other players have.”
At this stage, people within football circles are guilty of blaming each other for this major issue without acting on it themselves. Honest players likes Jarvis can make a referee’s decision easier by going down when fouled. The big committees – FIFA and UEFA – must somehow clamp down on the players that get away with diving. Punishments are not harsh enough, far too many players in South American and European leagues are fooling referees into making false decisions – it’s way too easy. With some more attention dedicated to it then it is not hard to see that this cheating can be stopped.
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