In October, I wrote about the fantastic news that the Italian FA had banned Juventus star, Milos Krasic, for 2 games for diving. Unfortunately it seems that their tough stance is not going to followed by the English FA. Earlier this month, Theo Walcott came out and apologised for diving against Leeds in an effort to win a penalty while the Championship side were leading 1-0. Phil Dowd was fooled by Walcott's theatrics and pointed to the spot but thankfully his assistant managed to change his mind and a free was given against the Arsenal player. Walcott wasn't booked. Although some applauded Walcott for admitting his dive, I felt he should have been retrospectively punished. In fact why did Phil Dowd not yellow card him when he was told by his assistant that Walcott had dived?
This weekend, Roberto Martinez accused Fabregas of diving to win a penalty which led to Gary Caldwell being dismissed. There was a slight bit of contact but it seemed that referee Kevin Friend couldn't wait to get the red card out and point to the spot. Fabregas defended himself by saying that himself and Martinez are Catalan (?) and that "he should know that i'm not the kind of guy that dives". Well he may have had some justification to go down at the weekend because there was a slight pull-back (very slight) but last night he was an embarrassment. Arsenal were 1-0 down to relegation threatened Championship side Ipswich,when Fabregas tried to con the ref. Fabregas was touched on the shoulder by Gareth McAuley in the 11th minute and Fabregas' legs went from under him like he'd been shot. Mark Halsey, the referee on this occasion, felt that Fabregas had dived. Was he booked? Of course not. I fail to understand why this seems to be the usual outcome. The rule is that diving is considered a yellow card offence and yet it is very rarely punished to the letter of the law.
Compare that to the rule that a player will be booked if they remove their shirt or run into the crowd to celebrate a goal. This rule is complete rubbish (unless you do an Adebayor and run the entire pitch to rile the opposing fans) and yet it's enforced each time. I felt terribly sorry for Freddie Piquionne at the weekend. He had just scored a goal which would have moved his team, West Ham, out of the relegation zone. He ran to his own fans to celebrate and was promptly shown a second yellow card by referee Peter Walton. With 10 men, West Ham couldn't hold on to their lead and Everton equalised leaving the Hammers still in the relegation zone. Now, i understand some people saying he deserved the card because players know they will be booked and the referee was left with no choice.
However, how come referees have no choice but to book players for celebrating goals but they have a choice when it comes to booking players for diving? It's diving that ruins games, not celebrating. Would Peter Walton, who we now know referees games to the letter of the law, have booked Fabregas last night? I seriously doubt it. In fact it was Mr Walton who failed to see Rafael's foul inside the box on Luke Varney last night which would have given Blackpool the chance to go 3-0 up.
Diving should be dealt with harshly. That means retrospective punishment as well. The laws need to be changed in relation to the celebrations too. Or at least more emphasis should be put on the rules which are there to stop blatant cheating (i hate the phrase unsporting behaviour) rather than players showing the elation of scoring, the same elation that the fans have, the reason why football means so much to us. I have no problem with a referee turning a blind eye to a player celebrating but cheating should be stamped out of the game and the only way to do that is to get tough on the cheaters.
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