This play acting has to be dealt with seriously. On the continent it's often accepted and tollerated - and that has ruined many games. For me, watching diving players, especially in Italy and Spain shows them to be cheats and I have no respect for them.
In addition to the players being idiots, this season there seems to be a greater number of referee decisions that are not just poor, but really stupidly wrong. Take the "goal" for Chelsea at the weekend in the FA Cup semi-final. It was nowhere near across the line, but the ref' awarded a goal. Stevie Wonder would have made a better decision. The England "goal" in the World Cup that was 3 feet inside the goal and wasn't awarded! The odd off-side decision that is slightly wrong is almost acceptable, but missing goals is just not on. Technology is the answer and it's way overdue.
This is how close the goalkeeper got to Andy Carroll...
But the unawarded goal in the 2010 World Cup merely offsets that "goal" in the 1966 final... :-p
ReplyDeleteI will offer a qualified agreement with you Stephen. Goal line technology is easy and, most importantly, quick, and should be brought in immediately. The referee gets a bleep in his ear as soon as the ball crosses the line and awards a goal. Very simple and very effective.
ReplyDeleteUse of video replays for other incidents is a minefield, as many fouls / dives / offsides etc are far from clear cut, and can be debated even with multiple camera angles and super slow-mo. Referring these types of decision to a 'video ref' could inject significant delays into matches, yet still fail to clear up major controversial incidents.
Ashley Young is a case in point. In both the penalties he has recently 'won', I think it's clear enough that there was some sort of minor contact with the defender. Was it sufficient to make him fall over? Certainly not in either case. Was it sufficient to impede his progress to the ball? Again I'm not sure. It may even be that he 'dragged' his foot in order to make contact before falling over. It really is impossible to say, because so many players now do it, and do it very well. Contact in itself doesn't constitute a foul, but on the other hand an apparently minor touch can unfairly impede a player when he is travelling at speed, and particularly when he is already off balance.
My final point is a question: is it wrong for a player to make a foul more obvious by falling over when he feels he has been touched? After all, referees often struggle even to make obvious decisions, so can a player be blamed for wanting to make a slight foul look like a far more blatant one? (I realise that ended up being two questions!)
Andrew - Did I ever tell you the conversation we had with Mr Lautenschläger about THAT goal? He thought it shouldn't have been given, but blamed the Russian linesman.
ReplyDeleteOf course, he was wrong.
:-)
By the way, the Maradona handball in 1986 had already offset the 1966 'goal', so we're now in defecit.
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