Diving Files: Hatem Ben Arfa & Iker Casillas Ham It Up.

By: chris | March 19th, 2009

Hatem Ben Arfa is as contemptible as he is talented – and he’s quite talented. In the dying moments of last night’s draw in Amsterdam he was hit by Bruno Silva somewhere in the upper chest/throat. Fine enough, that’s a foul. But he didn’t go down right away. He felt his throat, looked up for either the ref or the scoreboard, and then went to the ground for the exaggerated stop, drop and roll. All in the 119th minute. Time wasting, you say? No, never…

Hatem also grabbed his knee/shin as if by instinct – sure sign he’s a magna cum laude graduate of the Cristiano Ronaldo School of Play Acting – hamming it up like a legend.

And then there’s Bizarro Ben Arfa, Iker Casillas. Even more talented grossly talented, but the quintessential teammate, consummate professional and a humble man. A breath of fresh air amongst footballers – but I guess no one’s perfect.

“Yeste pushed me very hard and suddenly. He did not hit me in the face, but it was a red card.

Joaquin is a magnificent coach and he knows that I have never dived in my career.”

That’s all fine and well, Iker, but the problem is he didn’t hit you in the face and yet you flopped on the ground like Mike Tyson had just landed a left hook and told Marcelo about the boo boo on your eye, which is why much of the press is calling you a diver.

Say it ain’t so, Iker. (But we expect as much from you, Ben Arfa.)

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Fibz

i dont uderstand you people...god if you think thats worse you should see the way drogba dives...but he still gets away with it..fair enough ben arfa shouldnt have rolled over but he was elbowed in the chin..and nowadays refs dont look out for skilful players so that is why these players have to be so dramatic..
tori

i don't think casillas was acting here....and in general this leads back to the discussion that the goalies are the most vulnerable people on the field. i used to play goalie myself for quite some time and when someone hit/kicked me, they rarely got punished for doing so.
Alex

The only way to get rid of behavior like this is to allow leagues or governing bodies to assess suspensions based on video evidence. It may be opening a can of worms, but do you think Casillas would react so dramatically if he thought La Liga might suspend him for a game once they saw that the only person to touch Casillas' face was Casillas? Players will stop doing this when they can no longer get away with it, or when it is no longer worth the price, i.e. a penalty or card to the opponents in one game isn't worth a suspension in the next.
Weston (@wpazzurri)

i dont think he was holding hid shin, but just dramatically demonstrating the fetal position. when i get hurt bad enough to curl up in a ball i dont really notice where my hands go. (not that im defending him, it look like he got shot, and he rolled around far too much for even if he did get hit.)
Foreverzidane

Ben Afra should get a fine for his disgraceful tactics.
And this is in the age, where there are 22 individual cameras following every player!
Hope he will never play for France, quite shameful.
Drabik

Corey .... Why did Ben Arfa hold his knee?
nobobomo

FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-
chris

Corey, did you read what Casillas said? Above?

There's really no way of misinterpreting that.
Shazback

Shouldn't that be the Rivaldo school of diving?
Corey

Casillas was not play acting. I watched the game live, and viewed the incident on replay and in slow motion. Yeste pushed Casillas down, but as he followed through with his push, he half slapped, half punch Casillas in the left check/eye area. Hence why Casillas was holding his face. He did not have to hold his face, but he was hit there, so its not much of a dive/play acting. But that did not get Yeste sent off, it was Yeste shoving him to the ground and then subsequently chasing after him only to be held back by Raul.

Ben Arfa also was elbowed in the throat, so while his rolling around on the ground was shameful, he didnt make up the elbow. Give him a yellow for rolling around, but the Ajax player was rightfully sent off.
Derek

This play acting has got to stop. It sickens me. I hope that when the time comes to judge how long the red-carded player's suspension is to be video evidence is taken into account and this ridiculousness results in fines for Ben Arfa & Casillas. Woeful displays.