Fri 31 Mar 06
Diver Measure Down?
The Telegraph offers an excellent analysis of the problems facing the FA’s request to FIFA to crack down on diving:
The main problem in punishing simulation - attempting to deceive the referee - is that it comes under unsporting behaviour and is therefore punishable by a yellow card.
Some have called for players guilty of diving to be sent off but there is no provision in the laws for this. While cheating is unacceptable, it is also neither violent conduct nor serious foul play - the offences in law that carry a straight red card.
Barwick also admitted that Fifa’s disciplinary guidelines, which can be worded in a way that leave too much to interpretation, do not allow for retrospective sanctions if the incident has been seen by the referee and dealt with at the time - even if no action was taken.
Only if the referee has not seen an incident can the FA step in after the event.
But Iain Dowie, Crystal Palace’s manager is not waiting for the football bureaucracy to move on this. He has begun to fine his own players for diving and encourages other clubs to do likewise:
“If a player makes a blatant dive then the club should fine them. I have done that in the past and I think all other clubs should do the same now,” Dowie said.
[…]
“When someone feigns an injury and there was not contact, then it is an issue for the club to deal with.”
Paul Canniff
I do like that the FA is starting to look more closely at this kind of thing. “Diving”’s a tough one. I’m more in favour of the video review on hand-ball related goals and that type of incident.
I’ve been trying to compare the “cheating” situation, though, with some difficulty, to what might happen in the NHL. There’s always talk of “too much clutching and grabbing” but it’s really a general comment. Aside from blatant violence, no one really seems to get singled out. If an NHL star scored a goal from a high stick, would anyone even mention it or be concerned? The “the ref didn’t call it” line would probably suffice. If someone hooked a defender to gain possession of the puck and then scored, would this player be called “a cheat” in the national media and possibly fined? I wouldn’t imagine. Video replay has been a great help, but, the general consensus appears to be that if someone gets away with something, they get away with it and aren’t called “cheats”.
It’s perhaps an apples and oranges comparison to some degree, but, still, it helps demonstrate the current level of the debate in English football and elsewhere.