The Beginning of the End of Diving in Football?
By: Daryl | August 4th, 2009
Diving is the scourge of soccer. The ugly pimple on the otherwise beautiful face of football.
Mostly because it’s cheap. In a game that offer so much in terms of honour and sportsmanship, too many players too often look to fool the ref and gain an advantage.
Just as bad, it’s also the stick that the soccer haters most often use to beat the beautiful game with. Usually with very cheap and not particularly funny jokes.
So I think most football fans would agree that – while diving compilation videos are hilarious – it’s definitely time for the football authorities to make like a authoritarian swimming pool lifeguard and impose strict penalties for flopping.
Which is exactly what they’re doing in Australia.
The new A-League season starts next week with new disciplinary measures in place to deal with divers. From the Reuters story:
The Football Federation of Australia (FFA) announced on Friday it would impose two-match bans on players found guilty of diving, or “simulation”, to win a penalty or have an opponent sent off.
“I think everyone — fans, players and media — believe that simulation is unacceptable,” FFA Chief Executive Ben Buckley announced on Friday.
The FFA’s judicial panel was also given new powers to review matches and hand out retrospective suspensions for incidents that were missed by the referee. Red cards can be rescinded for players wrongly sent off.
Sounds like common sense. And it is. But it’s also a big big deal. It’s the first time I can remember any football league specifically clamping down on diving.
Assuming the new rules are enforced, there will likely be a spate of early bans, followed by a noticeable decline in diving. If and when that happens, it’s only a matter of time before the rest of the world adopts the same measures. And for that reason, I’ll be watching the A-League a little more closely in 2009.
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Category: Australia
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I’ll also be keep to see this being implemented, though somebody said it best when they asserted something along the lines of ‘these sanctions will be considered a success if they never actually have to be imposed.’
Off topic, Daryl where can I find the option to subscribe to the World Cup Blog RSS feeds like you already have for the Offside Page?
Posted from
Australia
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As bad as diving is, it bugs me that soccer gets such a bad reputation for it while it is prevalent in most major sports…for example name an nfl receiver who has never exaggerated contact to get a pass interference call
Posted from
United States -
Good point Luka, though I suspect there might be a steep learning curve where players realize that this is for real. Might be a chaotic start to A-League 2009, but for the greater good.
Re: WCB feed, the link is at the foot of all WCB blog posts, but here it is for anyone who needs it:
http://www.worldcupblog.org/feed
The same structure works for any WCB or Offside blog, just add “/feed” to the url.
Posted from
United States -
I wonder how this sits with FIFA, who are opposed to ‘re-refereeing’ games?
Afer all, you describe this as “common sense” – another red flag for Sepp Blatter.
Posted from
United States -
I thought Serie A was already doing this?
Posted from
United States -
does this mean even more proposed referees on the pitch- 1 in the middle, 2 linesmen, 2 on the goal posts and 1 to watch drogba?
Posted from
United Kingdom -
troy, what about the NBA where reggie miller was know as a flopper aka diver, and was applauded for it and considered just part of his competitive nature! As a knicks fan in the 90’s that diving bastard caused alot of cheap fouls on us.
Posted from
United States -
They’ve already started this in Mexico.
Right away in the first weekend of play they caught someone. Pachuca’s Christian Gimenez admitted that he dived during a game and he was suspended for one.
It’s good that they’ve started this, but he’ll be followed by this for a long time, especially since he was the first example. There goes another call up from Argentina for him…Posted from
United States -
I like the drogba comment
And you have to admit that reggie was an unbelievable playa – 8 points in 6 seconds that was in po against knicks?
Posted from
United States -
Serie A is already doing it, if the referee doesn’t sanction an event the disciplinary committee can do it. I haven’t noticed a big change.
Posted from
United States -
If anyone wants to read more about it, go here:
http://a-league.theoffside.com/team-news/diving-into-stop-the-divers.htmlPosted from
Australia -
Nice post. i was looking for such post. i learned many more about the world cup football from this blog. thanks for posting.
Posted from
Australia -
it’s a f*kin’ disgrace
Posted from
United States -
Fifa will sanction the FFA..just as they pressured the Scottish FA, wait and see.
Posted from
United States
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