Diving and penalties

[superfrank]

I was just reading a BBC article in which Michael Owen "blames foreign players for diving increase" while admitting that he dived for the penalty against Argentina in France 98 (no shit!).

There is no doubt that the influence of foreign players cheating (that's what it is) is responsible - when Maradona scored the "hand of god" goal against England in Mexico 86 he was even more praised in Argentina because he had scored a goal by devious means and got away with it - it's a cultural thing. Here we would have been embarrassed by it and the victory would have been a hollow one.

Anyway, back to the point of the post (diving and penalties)... I'm not sure of the stats but it I suspect there are far more penalties awarded in modern football than after the law was first introduced. I think that the award of a penalty in most situations is too harsh a punishment as it results in a near certain goal for the opposition when, 9 times out of 10, it is not a clear goal scoring opportunity that has been prevented.

My solution is to only awarded penalties when the referee decides it was a clear goal scoring opportunity than has been denied, and the rest of the time award a direct free kick as with any foul outside the box.

To stamp out the cheating players should simply be given retrospective bans by the FA where it is clear that they have cheated (a few 5 games bans and we'd suddenly see far more players try to keep their feet).

What does everyone else think?

edit: Thinking about this further why not give a penalty for any foul that prevents a clearing goal scoring opportunity even if it is outside the box (e.g. a player tripped when running through on goal) and only give a booking to the player who has transgressed. The 18-yard area would then be used just for keeping players away from the penalty spot as it is being taken (and to help the linesman with offsides).

At the moment we have a laughable situation where a player can get a penalty by kicking the ball past the on-rushing keeper (which often goes out of play so it wasn't a clear scoring opportunity) then jumping over him to the ground - a penalty is awarded and the keeper sent off. That's 4 punishments for the team (a penalty against, a man down for the rest of the game, not having their first choice keeper on the field and a future ban for the player. The punishment does not fit the crime.

[Dublin_Flyer]

I was talking to a chap in the local last week about this, LFC fan, same as myself. As Liverpool fans we were saying that from dubious penalties being 6 of one/half a dozen of the other, Suarezs' antics have led to him being definitely in the half dozen of the other camp in most refs views, with nobody to blame but himself.

From what I heard there was a short debate about diving on one of the sat night highlights programs, not sure if it was Match of The Day or the Irish version. General consensus was that if there was a panel viewing diving/penalty incidents on monday morning that could give 3-5 game bans, diving would die down pretty quick.

I wholeheartedly agree, the citing in rugby for gouging/stamping etc doesn't stop the game, and names,shames and punishes the offenders, as should be done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICPyr0q0doY

This would be a very long ban, possibly some acting classes during the ban.

[pdupre1961]

This one is the best I've seen...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=qpe ... ature=fvwp

Definately a future Manchester United player...

[Euler]

Poor decision to send Torres off there against Man U. OK he was clipped and made the most of it, but surely the ref should have given him a stern talking to and warned him that he would be off if he did it again?

[gazuty]

I think the penalty should be the player plays one week in the Australian Football League.

http://youtu.be/qlG3qqtWNy8

This post it not about which sport is the toughest etc, but if a football (soccer) player finds out what it is like to receive a realistic full contact bump, perhaps we can get rid of the crap writhing around in pretend agony we see almost every week.

You probably only need to see the commencement of this video - incident 1 and then the incident at the 28 second point. That player at the 28 second point is the captain of my club. When he went down and the blood streamed out like everyone watching the game from both teams were very concerned.

Full incident here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3aXPI68aIA

Diving is the one aspect of football (soccer) that really puts me off what is otherwise an excellent game.

[gutuami]

To stamp out the cheating players should simply be given retrospective bans by the FA where it is clear that they have cheated (a few 5 games bans and we'd suddenly see far more players try to keep their feet)

good point. I'd like to see punishments like the one of Tevez. The youtube is full of cheating videos. Everybody's moaning but the situation is repeating itself with regularity.

[pdupre1961]

Young dived again and Fergie said nothing - what does that tell you.

Obviously, he's been taking diving lessons because nobody in the media said anything. But, if you watch in slow motion its clear as day.