Ask anyone who doesn’t like football for their reasons behind not watching the beautiful game with any regularity and along with the fact that there is too much money in the game and too many over-hyped prima-donna footballers playing it, one of the first things they will point to will almost exclusively be centred around “diving”. In football circles, the word diving is oft-replaced with “embellishing” or “simulation” as if the word implies a slight faux pas – more on that distinction and differentiation later. I want to take a few moments to issue some response that I hope will be a reasonable retort for those of you who are outspoken about diving, not to mention the players employing such nefarious tactics on a regular basis.
First, and this may seem confusing given the topic of this article and my intent to defend the act, I don’t actually like diving. I find the players who do so with great regularity to be in some way cheating the system, the fans who pay to watch and also themselves. Supporters who have fallen out of love with the game tend to detest the way today’s players throw themselves to the ground and roll around feigning injury. Back in the days of black and white TV’s and working mines, men simply did not act that way. Today’s players lack any shame in either the dishonesty they display or the sheer ridiculousness of a slight tug inducing endless flips and rolls.
One important detail that neither you nor anyone else can defend is that the best players and biggest clubs will get the referee’s protection and the majority of the calls more often than not, leaving weaker, smaller clubs on the wrong end. It’s not a hard and fast rule, but it’s a good guideline. The notion that things will end up evening themselves out over the course of the season is up for debate, but it is something which I simply do not believe holds any water. You need to understand that football is a business first and foremost, and thinking otherwise is a little naive. The United’s and Gunners of this world are massive clubs, and having them finish where they “should” is a necessary evil. Fixture lists can be a little more accommodating towards the big clubs than the promoted newcomers. There are other examples of the establishment looking after the established elite if you care to scratch the surface a little. Seeing smaller clubs finish in qualifying spots for European competition is a fantastic fairy-tale but to the men in suits at The FA, that is not what is preferred.
I have written several times and pontificated to anyone who would listen that there needs to be stiff penalties for diving culprits. Yellow cards are an easy first step, but there is a catch-22 – sometimes players really aren’t diving and are improperly booked. Oftentimes the referee has the call right, but neither you nor I would like to see our club’s players penalized improperly. So if not yellow cards, what can be done?
This is where things get simple. Give the FA (ugh, hate giving them any more power than they already have) the duty of going through the games’ calls and be on the look-out for diving. Forming part of the panel assessing such decisions should be former players of all positions, for after all, the players themselves will have been involved in such incidents and won’t have the wool pulled over their eyes quite so easily. Should a player be caught with a clear dive resulting in game-changing play, that player should be penalized, perhaps financially, in suspensions, or even both. If a player is consistently penalised, perhaps the club should be issued some form of reprimand. The point is, there should be retrospective penalties. The only problem with that approach is that the player will, to all intents and purposes, have gotten away with his actions for the remainder of the match in which the crime was committed.
So, what then can I possibly have to say that is contrary to diving pundits?
First we must establish a difference between diving and embellishing, assuming there is one. For me the difference is that with an embellishment there is in fact a foul committed, however a player has taken it upon himself to a) make that foul appear nastier than what it was, and b) assure the referee has taken notice. I’ll use Jack Wilshere as an example, just so you know I’m playing fairly. In the match last weekend, Jack was dribbling through the middle and upon slight contact jumped to the ground. There was contact, it was clear, but not enough to have sent him flying perhaps. That is embellishing.
A dive on the other hand, for me is when a player goes to the ground with no actual contact usually followed by grasping of one’s ankle, leg, head or some other extremity, which is a complete fabrication. In the match against Crystal Palace at the weekend, there was a highly publicized dive by Ashley Young, and rightfully so. He was issued a yellow, but as I said earlier, that can’t be the only solution. The act was indefensible, and even Red Devils manager David Moyes was outspoken in a press conference. Palace chairman Steve Parish was harsher in his assessment, obviously, insisting that players caught diving should be red-carded on the spot. Parish told the BBC, “If preventing a goal-scoring opportunity is a straight red then trying to create one by cheating should be a straight red also.” Perhaps he has a point but for me, a fairer and more fitting punishment may be the introduction of a ‘sin-bin’ to football.
When asked about the incident and about diving in general, Rio Ferdinand brought up a good point:
“If it’s going to happen, it’s got to happen across the board, not just in our league. It’s got to happen across Europe, because, for instance, you go in the Champions League after we’re being told in the Premier League you’re not meant to dive and so on. Then you go in the Champions League and you’ve got to face certain countries who are simulating. So it’s difficult.”
I couldn’t agree more. It really has to begin with UEFA. While many would argue FIFA needs to step in, I think that would be a monumental undertaking and one that would be virtually impossible to police given the difficulties with match-fixing and various scandals. Having clubs who theoretically can be playing against each other, as with all top divisions in Europe through Europa and Champions League, the playing field needs to be leveled.
While you might not see embellishing as being a “clean” play, I hope you will agree with the difference between the two. So in actuality I am defending embellishment, not diving, and I think noting that differentiation is important when discussing this with those non-footy fans.
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