I am getting a little tired of current players, ex-pros, pundits and even referees coming out in defence of footballers ‘going to ground easily’.
Diving in football once again hit the headlines this week (as it seemingly does about once a month), with Liverpool’s Luis Suarez and Tottenham’s Gareth Bale in the dock following incidents last weekend.
In both instances the players made fools of themselves with theatrical falls when there was no contact.
They both dived, they both cheated, and they should both be punished for bringing the game into disrepute.
But they haven’t been, the issue has been ignored by the footballing authorities (again).
Any player guilty of ‘simulation’ should be hit with a ban or a hefty fine, and if that was to start happening on a regular basis, then players may think twice before doing it again.
But for me, it’s not just about those who hit the deck when there has been no contact, it’s also about those who go to ground when they have been ‘touched’.
Stoke City striker Michael Owen said this week: “I’d say that 75 per cent of people could stay on their feet for a penalty, and if they get touched and go down it is almost, ‘hey, I got touched so it’s okay to go down’.
“I have been guilty as well, I played at the 1998 World Cup against Argentina and I was running flat out, got a nudge, went down. Could I have stayed up? Yes probably.
“Then four years later Collina gave me a penalty again against Argentina. Again, I could have stayed on my feet, the defender’s caught me and I did have a decent gash down my shin from it but I could have stayed up.”
And he went on: “It’s a very difficult subject to talk about especially to people who have not played the game. There is a major skill in trying to outwit an opponent.
“For the actual player one against one, you’re trying to draw people, to commit them, to get into the box because you know as soon as you have got them in the box they are petrified of sticking a leg out or doing anything. It is a skill to get them one on one or isolated. No-one is for blatantly diving, of course they are not, but there is a part of a striker that actually tries to entice the leg to come out to try to win a penalty.
“It is a skill and it has been done for years and years and I don’t think it will ever leave the game.”
Well, I’m sorry, but for me, falling over when you have been ‘touched’, is still diving.
It sounds straightforward enough to me, but if the contact - and this goes for anywhere on the pitch - isn’t strong enough to make a player fall over, then that player shouldn’t fall over.
They should stay on their feet, and if they don’t, they are still trying to con the referee.
Owen’s words have been echoed by the respected referee Pierluigi Collina, former England boss Glenn Hoddle, and many others.
People ‘in the game’ don’t see ‘going to ground easily’ as cheating. Instead, it’s professional, it’s part of the game, it’s good play.
Well, I’m sorry, it’s none of those things, it is cheating, plain and simple.
Sporting tragedy at Kettering Town
What’s happening down the road at Kettering Town Football Club is little short of a sporting tragedy.
It seems as though the Poppies are on their last legs, and that it is now only a matter of time before the gates are closed on the club’s 140-year history. Forced to play with just 10 men against Bashley last weekend, and then having their midweek fixture at Leamington called off due to a lack of players is an amazing fall from grace for a club that is a giant of the non-League game.
The blame game is obviously in full swing, and Imraan Ladak is deservedly getting plenty of stick, but he hasn’t brought the club to its knees all by himself, others have been involved. I would suggest it goes back many years, to the 1980s in fact, and the decision to sell Rockingham Road and basically leave the club asset-free. It’s been a slow demise with some highs along the way since then.
But whoever is to blame, what has happened to the Poppies is a tale of epic mis-management, and as always it is the club’s supporters that are hit the hardest. The club is not yet dead, there is still hope the Poppies can be saved (although it does seem a forlorn one), and I sincerely hope it is the case for the thousands of people that hold this once great club close to their hearts. Because life will not be the same without Kettering Town FC
World Cup organisers making venue mistake
The organisers of the Rugby World Cup this week announced the list of venues for the 2015 tournament, and aside from Twickenham and the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, the only other rugby ground is Gloucester’s Kingsholm.
The rest of the stadia are football grounds such as Old Trafford, St Mary’s in Southampton, St James’ Park in Newcastle and stadium:mk down the road in Milton Keynes, as well as the Olympic Stadium. It’s ridiculous that rugby grounds, especially such good ones as Saints’ own Franklin’s Gardens and Leicester’s Welford Road, aren’t being used.
Apparently it’s because, at least in the case of the Gardens, the capacity isn’t great enough.
You see, the organisers have set the target of selling just shy of three million tickets over the course of the tournament, hence choosing stadia with big capacities.
That’s all well and good when England are playing, or the All Blacks, or South Africa, or Australia.
Wales will obviously bring in a crowd at the Millennium as well, but is there really a serious enough appetite to see any other nation? A big enough appetite to ensure a full house at St James’ Park on, say, a Tuesday afternoon or a Thursday night?
I mean, Ican’t see 53,000 people turning out to watch Fiji against Argentina, can you? But I could easily see 13,500 packing out the Gardens for the same fixture. So what’s a better arena for a rugby match? A heaving Gardens, or half empty St James’? Likewise, I can’t see 32,000 rocking up at St Mary’s to take in Canada versus Namibia, or Scotland against Canada for that matter.
It’s all well and good playing games in stadia that have lots of seats in them, but there’s not much point when most of those seats will be left empty.
The organisers have big plans and big ambitions, but I think they are heading for a fall and a tournament blighted by half-empty grounds for too many fixtures – especially as the ticket prices will no doubt be extortionate.
If there was a football World Cup in this country, the games would be played at football grounds, the games in the Rugby World Cup should be played at rugby grounds, with a few showcase games staged in the bigger arena. Simple as that.
Cole won’t be remembered for football
Ashley Cole is one of the best left-backs English football has ever produced, and currently one of the best players in world football.
He has had a fantastic career with two of England’s biggest clubs, winning every domestic honour there is to win, and earlier this year he added a European Cup winner’s medal to his collection.
He is on course to win his 100th cap for England in their World Cup qualifier in Poland next week, with the prospect of many more to come. So many more in fact, that he should at some point surpass Peter Shilton’s record haul of 125 for the Three Lions.
But when his career is over, what will Cole be remembered for? Some of you will be thinking failed celebrity marriage played out in papers, some will be thinking an autobiography whining about the ‘insult’ of only being offered £50,000 wages per week for kicking a ball about, while others will just think of Twitter and another word beginning with T.
The truth is, not enough of us will think ‘what a great player he was’, and that is a great shame.
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