Soundoff: Football’s Greatest Evil.

By: chris | September 1st, 2009

The topic du jour for the last few days or so has been that despicable act known as diving, after Eduardo’s antics brought it to the surface against Celtic last week. Arsene Wenger has labeled it a witch hunt, and he might have a point. But then I tend to think a chase might ensue if a lady hopped on a broom and sped off towards the moon before the eyes of millions.

The purist inside me hates this, despises it and sees no place for it in football. But the realist in me watches football, and knows it’s not about Eduardo or Cristiano Ronaldo or Wayne Rooney. It’s a football-wide problem. I’m not oblivious – my favorite players do it, and so do yours. There aren’t a great number of exceptions these days. Now the question becomes, is it football’s biggest problem?

Off the bat it’d have to be no, given the presence of racism and homophobia. But those aren’t really within the exclusive parameters of the sport, and can be categorized as far larger societal concerns. So in order to stick within those parameters, a few thoughts to kick things off:

The aforementioned diving/feigning injury: As well as cheating, it’s downright painful to watch. Like a Zach Braff movie – and no one wants that.

Ultras/hooliganism: There are many good fan groups, but there are also bad ones who tend to ruin the experience for the innocent. Between violence, safety concerns and their consequences for other fans, bad eggs can easily ruin a good thing.

Axel Witsel’s tackling abilities: This was a joke, but Axel Witsel’s “tackle” on Marcin Wasilewski this weekend put Eduardo’s broken leg to shame. Truly, truly horror film stuff – so bad I won’t link and I’d suggest you avoid the Google machine.

So “the horror tackle” – which this surely was as the intent to play the ball never looked to be there – can certain be considered an evil with the ramifications it can have on an unsuspecting opponent’s career.

The top end money: Oh yes, we’re looking at you Real Madrid & Manchester City.

The problem with these two isn’t that they have money – it’s that they’re setting the market so unfathomably high and promising wages no one can (nor should) match. Is Cristiano Ronaldo worth €94m? Absolutely not, despite what he may think – same for Kaka. Is Zlatan worth €45m? Of course not. Is he worth €45m plus Eto’o? Please.

That Franck Ribery is being talked about in the €100m range really says it all: valuations have become unreasonable.

The shirt-off automatic yellow: I jest, but this is still a ridiculous rule.

Refereeing: They are human, yes, and many don’t deserve the abuse hurled in their direction, but the standard isn’t exactly high across the board these days.

The lack of video technology: This will surely sprout a fence in a hurry, but there’s something to be said for having the ability to remove a great deal of human error and not doing so.

These are just ideas and there are many gone unmentioned, some perhaps larger than anything here, so we’d like to hear your thoughts. What’s the greatest evil afflicting football today?