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?

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Category: World Football

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soccer balls

yes, I agreed R.Madrid is the biggest evil in futbol and should be bashed.
The Wall

I would say R.Madrid is the biggest evil in futbol. They're a mob of blind fanatics.
Jon

Diving and complaining to the refs is one of the main reasons I don't watch much italian or spanish football.

But I have to say that the lack of video replay is most easily fixed of the problems, and yet no one seems to be making any strides toward that end. Maybe this is one respect in which the MLS can take the lead.
wob

The golden goal rule must come back. There are too many penalty shootouts these days. Video technology, you mentioned it, I agree with you.
Oli Davies

Not sure I'd agree with the pundit quoted by Sandrahn. Although the governing bodies don't care, if you ask the average fan you'll find that violence comes top.

Apart from hooligansm the problem that should be dealt with, for me, is on pitch violence. Even if Witsel didn't mean it, he should know as he dives in that if it goes wrong, he faces a long ban.
Vinod

The saddest part is, there are a number of people like me who have come to accept it as part and parcel of the modern game. Players will dive, refs will screw up, global warming will melt the ice caps... It should have been clamped down on at the very beginning. Now, we may just have to live with it.
lupistoza

Wow, the Brazilian pundit quote by Sandrahn is probably one of the most insightful comments I have ever heard (in any forum, not just sports) on the differences between "Western" and "non-Western" cultures
Johnny

Put simply, the lack of sportsmanship.
bobby_Digital

video technology.... spain vs south korea in wc 2002 i believe is a perfect example... and the countless 'did the ball cross the goal line' situations.... the technology now is so spot-on and precise, it's a waste to not even use it.... in the 30 seconds the players take in hounding the ref, the official in the booth can talk right into his ear and give him the precise decision, without a shadow of a doubt... that to me is what this game is lacking...

as far as diving, its part of the game... i feel that most of this people that are outraged by diving either never played the game or were never good enough to understand... cus for better or worse its part of the game, personally it doesnt bother me because there are far bigger issues in football that need to be addressed and in the end its ultimately up to the ref to decide and there already is a penalty in place for diving (yellow card)... plus its so hard to determine when a dive happens or not...its a subjective decision, up to that respective ref's point of view...

im not a world class player by any stretch but there have been times in my youth days and men's league games i was literally run over and tackeled in the box and did not get a call and there were other times i may have fallen over a little too easy to get the foul or penalty.. was i wrong? honestly who gives a shit... when you're in competition sometimes you'll do things to get an advantage... it doesnt make it right but it is part of life and part of this game....
andersen

http://www.football365.com/joh...

Great article on football 365, that has a suggestion.
sandrahn

I'm Brazilian and it's been interesting to listen to and read some of the commentary on this in the football media there. One pundit said "the English are a strange people. They do not get angry when players break other players' legs. But they are full of rage when players try to gain an advantage to score a goal, which every team does. For them, violence is preferable to deception."
sandrahn

Chris, I like your evenhanded post on this. I notice this site and others in North America are much less full of fulminating moral outrage than in the UK, which is full of racist double standards regarding English/British players and foreigners when they dive. It's been pathetic listening to and reading the selective sermonizing, scolding, moralizing in the last week in the UK.

What's amazing is that Cronaldo and Gerrard and so many others repeatedly dive in CL and other int'l matches to their hearts content. Eduardo does it ONCE and he gets banned. At the supercup game Messi headbutted a player and Pedro dived. No punishment. Ashley Young dived to get a penalty last week in Villa's Europa cup game. No ban. Torres dived over the weekend in Pool's game v. Bolton (or was it Blackburn?) No media outrage. A Celtic player got sent off for diving over the weekend too.

Now I'd be fine with Eduardo's ban if this meant that from now on UEFA will seriously crack down on diving in int'l club and country matches but I don't believe for one moment that will happen. The only reason this particular incident has been punished is because of British media hysteria (trial by media, in effect) and the power of the Scottish FA at UEFA. Remember that last year they also demanded that a Lithuanian player who dived in a game v. Scotland be banned. UEFA duly obliged.

It's telling that these are the ONLY incidents in which UEFA have officially punished a player for diving -- in games v. Scottish teams. Remember that the Scots were behind the expansion of the Euro championships to 24 teams and were also instrumental in preventing UEFA to adopt goal line technology last summer.

The other thing is that now UEFA have opened the door to challenges against referee decisions, which until now we've been told are absolutely final.

I don't like diving, I'm a gooner, and we've suffered from diving incidents that have cost us games. Two seasons ago we were kicked out of the CL because one penalty not called and one dive. Our unbeaten run was famously ended because of a Rooney dive (and he's dived far far more times than Eduardo ever has).

But to focus on this one incident all out of proportion in a game that Arsenal would've won anyway, as if Eduardo is some kind of serial diver while so many big name players have dived far more times than he has and gotten away with it just beggars belief.

Again, if this means that UEFA will definitely crack down on simulation, all well and good. But how will they enforce this now? Eduardo's been banned because he "deceived the referee." Players deceive the ref all the time on the pitch. And as Wenger points out, it's ridiculous that UEFA consistently refuse to adopt video technology yet use that same technology to punish Eduardo.
Tim

Sorry Chris - I scrolled over that part after clicking through.
chris

Didn't forget racism; can never forget racism:

"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."

Also, Joe - wasn't saying he was trying to break his leg but his eyes didn't really appear to be on the ball.
Laurie

Also, I'd have to agree with Luka. It's not the diving that's the problem nearly so much as the inconsistency in dealing with it. Simple answer: Create a solid definition and punish perpetrators with an automatic post-game yellow after video review.

Okay, not so simple. But it would have to be better than the piecemeal approach we have now.

My theory: There will eventually be a computer program that will be able to do motion analysis to determine whether the contact was enough to create the reaction. Problem solved.
Laurie

It's the shirt off rule, obviously, because it represents FIFA's remarkable ability to focus on the picayune details while letting the larger things (like FIFA officials enriching themselves through their positions) slide.

Or because it reduces the amount of flesh visible during and after games.

Yeah. One of those.
Tim

This is a good list but you left out something that should absolutely be on there: Racism. This is a problem between players (see Onyewu's lawsuit) and also from fans in the stands.
tom

ask anyone in south america right now. it's all about violence

respect by the players
respect by the fans
don't make violence your answer to things like a dive, bad refereeing, etc...
Joe

I have trouble seeing that he meant to break the guys leg. I dunno, I've watched the video and I'm not sure that he meant it. This is blown out of proportion. If you want to talk about someone meaning to hurt someone look at one of my favorite players: Roy Keane. Now THAT is meaning to hurt someone. This could have easily been him meaning to stop and turn on the ball.

I mean maybe. Perhaps he did mean to, but I don't know why someone would want to do that. There are better ways to hurt someone that would be more likely to work. That tackle had to be timed just right to catch his leg like that.
Matteo

I believe that the 'Top end money' is the real problem. And I also find that the 'Top money' teams are partially the cause of the next two problems, diving and poor referees: these teams seem to get away with more dives and benefit from the worst calls - and this leads to the other teams/players diving more.
My opinion.
S. Watt

The corrupt officialdom at UEFA is the biggest evil in football.
Luka

Diving is one problem, but the lack of action, inconsistency and hypocrisy which augments it turns the problem into an epidemic on our game. That, and the annoying media. Seriously, I see dives every week - it's annoying how they are sensationalising one drop in an ocean of diving.
Homey

I'll vote for the top end money being the biggest problem. The vast majority of teams and their fans enter every season with no hope of winning anything - ever. How fun is that?
I'd vote for diving as second.
One thing that should be considered, but didn't make the list: All the stupid qualifiers that interrupte league seasons. We take 2 weeks off so France can play the Faroe Islands? There needs to be some type of initial qualification amongst the minnows, and then the big boys play a lot fewer matches.
Oli Davies

I think that all, or at least most of these issues, are problems that we can and should address.

For me, the biggest issue is surely holliganism.

I listened to the debates on Eduardo's dive, and as football fan enjoyed it, it is part of the game, like a foul. It's an issue of the game.

But listening to people talking about the West Ham/Millwall incident, I couldn't enjoy that, it's wrong, very wrong, and even more than that. It isn't football. It isn't an issue of the game, it doesn't even deserve a place in the rule book.
Harry Barracuda

The egotistical Platini and his vote winning automatic Champions League qualification for teams that face a pasting in the group stages but will vote for him thanks to the large bags of cash he's kindly thrust in their direction.