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While diving, for the most part, had just a singular purpose as recent as the 2006 World Cup, it has increasingly become a tool to kill the opposition’s counter-attacks. Goal.com takes a closer look at something which is increasingly taking credibility away from ‘the beautiful game’.
A fairly recent development in the modern game has seen players ‘falling’ to the ground in ‘agony’ at an alarming rate. It stops play, kills the flow of matches, and threatens to harm the credibility of what many term as ‘the beautiful game.’
What is this horrible atrocity, you may ask, that ills the modern game? Well, it’s not a tangible illness that harms throngs of people in third world countries. Nor is it a real life version of a disease reminiscent of something from a science fiction movie. It is, however, hurting the already unstable reputation of today’s football.
What I’m referring to, of course, is the ‘diving epidemic’ that has become much more prevalent in recent seasons. At the recently completed 2008 European Championships in Austria and Switzerland, for example, the play was scintillating, the passion was immeasurable, and the diving was, well, rampant.
In most of the matches, especially those in which nations such as Italy, Spain and Portugal were participating, players would go down with phantom injuries, thus compelling the opposing team to put the ball out of play. More often that not, however, the supposedly injured player would then pick himself up without any medical assistance required (or, if any at all, would just get a quick shot of the ‘magic spray’) and continue play as if nothing was ever wrong in the first place.
Now, while this may seem like simple gamesmanship and harmless to the uninformed bystander, any football purist or true fan of the game will tell you that such occurrences will ultimately ruin the viewing experience, and the quality of football overall. Why would a team need to develop solid defensive tactics when they can just feign injury every time they lose possession? Surely, you can by and large keep your opponent off the score-sheet if you never allow them to hit you on the counter-attack. The credo of many a footballer seems to be: take a dive, save a goal.
What’s more, it appears as though many managers are encouraging, or failing to discourage, this type of behavior. Not once during the Euros did I see a coach pull a player aside for a quick word of chastisement for his apparent dive on the pitch. You would be hard fought to get any professional to admit it, but it is strongly suspected that some managers in fact allow players to practice diving techniques on the training ground; it would almost have to be so, as some players are so good at it that they can win free-kicks on a regular basis.
What, if anything, can be done about this? I’m sure many possible solutions were bandied about in homes and pubs alike while supporters viewed the matches, but I’ve got one of my own. When a player goes down and play is stopped, the injured (and I use that word loosely) player, would have to remain off the pitch for a determined amount of time. Therefore, in addition to being required to go off the pitch for just a moment if medical assistance is provided, he would have to stay on the touchline for, say, five minutes.
You can bet your bottom dollar that if this were to be instituted across the football world, you would see a huge and sudden decrease in diving. With a team being forced to play five minutes at a time with ten men against the opponent’s full-strength eleven, managers would feel compelled to make sure that their players did not even think about taking a dive. Additionally, I’m sure that players would know that if they did take a dive, they would be in for quite a tongue-lashing from their managers, as well as probably losing his first-team spot for at least a little while.
Now, as with any type of solution, new problems will arise. The most apparent issue that could come up is that teams would begin playing the ball out immediately if they saw an opponent go down, whether or not the fall was legitimate. A way to prevent such activity would be for the referee to be the only person who can stop play, and for players to be told that they are not, under any circumstances, to stop play by putting the ball out of bounds. There is also another problem though with this proposal, and that is the issue of when a player really is genuinely injured.
Just like when any new rule or amendment to old rules is instituted, this would take some getting used to. However, in time, it could in fact improve the quality of football by forcing sides to begin playing the way the game was intended to be played - the beautiful way.
What are your views on the diving epidemic? What do you believe is the best solution to this new problem?Joel Whitehead
From Goal.com
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