Only foreigners are divers…you’ve got to be kidding

Mark Hughes

Mark Hughes is the last person to have started the debate on diving in football. He has joined an increasing number of people who believe that the foreigners dive lot more than British players. He also stated that he didn’t use to fall down as easily as foreigners do now.

It is very surprising that Hughes has started this debate, as it proves he too has some experience in this ‘skill’. The incident in question happened when he was playing for Manchester United in the Cup Winners Cup quarter-final against Montpellier in 1991. Millions watched as Hughes was thrown backwards by the Pascal Baills supposed head-butt. UEFA didn’t allow Baills to use TV evidence to prove that no contact was made, and Hughes was warned by Montpeiller’s president not to travel to France for the return leg. He did travel, and he got another player expelled for spitting at him. He has probably forgotten this interesting episode when he decided to criticize Amr Zaki for penalty dive in City’s game against Wigan.

Even though we are all aware that players like Didier Drogba and Christiano Ronaldo has been very successful in this discipline, we cannot agree with Hughes that only foreign players dive. Until the influx of foreign players into English football, the players in England maybe didn’t use to dive, but they have been paying attention to what their foreign teammates were doing, and we can say that they have learned their trade.

What is even more worrying is that the best English players are doing this. Steven Gerrard is the player of many qualities, but it seems he have learned one to many. He has dived to get penalties, and he succeeded several times as well. Frank Lampard and Joe Cole are just some of the increasing number of players who believe there is nothing wrong with diving. Robbie Savage and Francis Jeffers had their share of dives, and the list doesn’t stop there.

Steve G

You would be surprised to learn that not only the players dive. Referee Paul Alcock was in the middle of the brawl between Sheffield Wednesday players and their Arsenal counterparts. He sent off Martin Keown and Paolo Di Canio, and the latter reacted by pushing the referee. Alcock staggered backwards several steps before crashing onto the ground as if he had been hit by Mike Tyson. Alcock dived in the way of the best divers today, and Di Canio was banned for 11 matches.

This has become an increasing problem not only in England but in the whole World. Even the managers like Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger stated that they will help in every way to eradicate this ‘disease’, and even the Football’s governing bodies are trying to deal with diving. Still, I feel that yellow card is not good enough punishment and it clearly produced no results. Few years ago, we could hear that FIFA is intending to introduce the rule where every dive would be punished by red card. This could be the only way to eradicate diving, as the players would think again after receiving red card. It is very surprising that this idea didn’t hold on, and maybe it will be reconsidered after recent events in the Premier League.

Diving remains the thing that mars the beautiful game of football, and both English players and foreign ones are to blame. Placing the blame doesn’t help anything, and what everybody should be focused on is finding solutions. Some steps have been made, and at least football people are aware of the problem. Everybody that has game of football close to their hearts can only hope the cure is found and that in the future diving will only be associated with water sports.

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