Diving is Back in the News, and Something Needs to Be Done
Professional football has been in the news once more this past week, as Chelsea succumbed to a poor judgment call as a result of a dive last weekend. This isn’t the first time diving has been in the news, professional football has been plagued by diving for years. With the spotlight on professional diving once again, isn’t it time for something to be done about it?
Pundits all over the Internet and on TV have been having their say, and the majority of them are siding in favor of the divers – or, at least, coming up with some simple excuse of why diving is really okay. Well, diving is not okay and it never has been. Let’s take a look at why diving is bad for the game and why the FA needs to do something about it.
It’s Bad Sportsmanship
When on the pitch, diving is often used as a form to gain a free kick, bulk up injury time or “win” a penalty. There’s something extremely wrong with this sort of culture. First of all, a penalty is never “won,” it is awarded to a player who’s been wronged on pitch. Diving and exaggerating the impact of contact is bad sportsmanship.
The only thing a footballer is doing when they perform such ploys is cheating their fellow players and professionals. It’s simply not fair. A yellow card given to a player as a result of a dive is wrong, and can seriously hurt their record, excluding them from upcoming matches.
Our fathers and greats of football history didn’t play the game like this, no matter how bad things got. Instead, they were gentleman and respected not only the game but, also their fellow players.
It Doesn’t Help Football’s Image
Fans will take the sport warts and all, supporting their team through thick and thin. However, fans getting involved in the game, either at a club level or international level are often put-off by aspects of the sport. It’s bad enough money controls club’s positions in the league tables, but to have diving ruin the game leaves an even worse taste in people’s mouths.
While it might not seem like a big deal, it’s one of the most common criticisms of modern football. It causes fans to dismiss international games, as “all they do is fall over at the lightest touch,” which is unfortunately true in most cases. Football matches are beginning to look more and more like adverts for personal injury lawyers.
It’s Gone on Long Enough
We’ve had to put up with diving for so long, so it’s easy enough to pick out the worse offenders. Players like Cristiano Ronaldo, who is amazingly talented gained a terrible reputation for his performances on the pitch. The FA needs to do something about diving in modern football and it’s disturbing they haven’t done anything already. Instead, the FA continually turns a blind eye and insists it’s up to managers and clubs to sort this out. This is a fair point, but they are the governing body and it’s up to them to put penalties and regulation in place to make sure this doesn’t continue.
It’s a shame football is so often referenced in mainstream media because of diving or something else negative. Without diving, sky-high paychecks and racism, modern football would be at the heart of most young people’s minds. Can’t we just stop all this messing about and get back to playing good, honest football?