Telling A Player To Dive Is Not A Smart Idea, It Turns Out.

By: chris | August 26th, 2009

Whilst Australia is cracking down on diving, their Asian brethren Japan are reeling from a slightly stupid – or tremendously stupid, your choice – remark by Urawa Red Diamonds gaffer Volker Finke (who is not, in fact, Japanese) which derided a player for not going down in the box. This has, predictably, resulted in a massive backlash from the Japanese FA and people who dislike diving, notably most not named Cristiano Ronaldo.

The quote which sparked the controversy went a little something like this:

Inukai’s comments were in response to Finke’s criticism of striker Sergio Escudero for not going down under a challenge in the penalty box during Urawa’s 2-1 defeat to Hiroshima on Saturday.

Finke fumed: “That’s what I’m the most angry about — him getting fouled and not falling down. I’ll give him a fair play medal.”

The Japanese FA was not best pleased by these comments, and lashed out in kind:

“He’s not qualified to be a manager,” Japan Football Association (JFA) president Motoaki Inukai was quoted as saying in Tuesday’s Japanese media.

“It’s unbelievable he said that. It’s hopeless. Is that how low we have sunk?”

Unfortunately he’s right, and I’m of the particular opinion diving is the greatest evil facing football today. That and London nightclubs.

Much like the end result of Dick Advocaat and his criticisms of the suits in the plush chairs, this will probably be a pretty good excuse to fire a guy for poor results. Urawa should be a title contender; they’re not. So Volker can expect that termination notice any day now, along with a sudden bout of amnesia which renders him unable to remember anything that happened in Japan.

Some will surely call for his head on a platter and his coaching license revoked for the comments on diving, but I’d be a bit more worried about his choice to say this aloud than keep it to himself. It’s one thing to think something of this nature, another entirely to say it. In the immortal words of Puppet Jose: just shut up, numpty.

Now while the comments are bad enough, there’s another curious parallel to this story. That name Sergio Escudero rings a bell, and it rings a bell with diving. So a quick google reveals…there are two Sergio Escudero’s: one who won’t dive, and one who, well, he’ll do absolutely anything.

Perhaps Finke thought he had the wrong Sergio Escudero?

Some Related Stories:

Category: Asia, World Football

« Tough Week For West Ham Climaxes In Violence | Home | Yellow Cards for Footballers Who Spit? »

The Offside RSS Feeds

Dustin

Yeah Shazback tell you what, you be the referee that gets the death threats and start fearing for you and your families lives. It has to be a global change not just one aspect, to put the burden on referees to call things that people will interpret as entirely wrong is dangerous. They'll just lose their jobs over it, or their lives.

Also isn't Pete Rose not in the Hall of Fame for betting on Baseball. How is teaching players to dive any different from influencing betting?
Shazback

Actually, I don't think that he was asking the player to dive. What he is complaining about is that referees do not award fouls unless when a player falls.

Escudero was tackled from behind and because of it was unable to take a shot. It should have been a foul. But since he didn't fall down but tried to play on, the referee didn't award a foul. How often do you see referees properly play the advantage rule in the penalty box with strikers where there's a foul by the defender (usually shirt-tugging or use of the arms), the striker doesn't go down, but doesn't get any advantage from the resulting situation (because another defender clears the ball/the goalkeeper rushes out to smother, etc.)? Normally in such a case, the referee should come back to the foul and award a free kick. But way, way too many referees don't even think about awarding a foul unless a player hits the deck.

Escudero was fouled, so he should have been awarded a penalty. But since he stayed on his feet, the referee didn't award it. That's why Finke was angry: his striker was fouled, and because he didn't fall down he wasn't awarded the penalty.

One of the steps that need to be taken to curb diving is not only hitting out against players who dive when there is no contact to try to get a foul, but also to improve refereeing and reduce the need for players to feel that if they don't go down, they won't get the foul. Players should know that if they're fouled and they go on playing but don't get an advantage from it, they'll still get the foul. Right now, that's not happening way, way too often, so players learn that as soon as they're fouled they need to go down in order to get that foul awarded. It's not diving, but it results in players going down for small, unobvious fouls that in turn encourages diving.
chris

Way, way before.
Weston (@wpazzurri)

I know, i just saw that. Eduardo has sure made up for Ronaldo leaving the Prem...
Ryan

Did this post go up before or after Eduardo's dive today?