As if the owner of the team bribing his team’s way to the championship or to avoid relegation is the only way of cheating, football has become a game of 22 or so cheaters per match. The amazing thing is that when you speak of cheating in the beautiful game, everyone things about money changing hands and matches being fixed. Take notice of the new type of cheating, pity the defenders in this situation because the get to be the guilty party.
The FIFA Women’s’ World Cup 2011 edition held in Germany have raised some doubts in my head about the man’s game. For sure this are only ladies and for sure we cannot expect them to play in the same level as the testosterone filled male species, if anyone had a doubt about what it takes in football to be a real competitor and to earn a penalty not cheat to get it, this ladies will show you a thing or two. They don’t know how to dive or fake an injury. When she falls to the ground, believe it, she’s really hurt. The quality and class they possess sometimes makes you forget that you are watching ladies, only to be reminded by the lack of cheating.
Watching Barcelona play is such a dream, the way they pass the ball, the way they close down opponents when they’ve lost the ball. Every department in that Barca team works like a well oiled machine. Lionel Messi is just a machine; you feel he has to go back to the future where he belongs. They are the best team of the era, no doubt. Having said that, if you challenge them like Real Madrid or Arsenal (two teams who stood head and toes against Barca) did, you are going to come up against a different Barcelona team. Teams even predict that they are going to get red card days before the game.
If an opposing team player fouls their player, they are so quick to surround the referee to try to persuade him to book the opposing player. Most times than not the referee book the player because of the pressure he’s been put under. Even if the ref decides not to book the player, he is not allowed to penalize a team for trying to make another team look guilty. In rugby, only the captain is allowed to approach the referee and even if he does approach the ref, it’s not to persuade the ref to change his decision his team’s way but to ask for explanation of the decision. If a player commits a foul and then tries to protest, the ball is moved 10 yards from where the incident occurred. In football there are no such rules but you would feel that we don’t really need such rules; it’s the responsibility of the organisation to make sure players behave in the field of play.
Barca fiasco continues. There is no other stronger small player around like Messi. He does not go down easy. He fights for the ball and fights get back on his feet, defenders struggle to contain him. BUT lately he has added something new to his repertoire, he dives, well the rest of that team are divers. When teams stand up against Barcelona, they have a way of frustrating opposition apart from their excellent football style; they fail to be on their feet whenever they are challenged for position. It’s embarrassing and disgraceful to watch. They do get incentives for diving around and faking injuries, the opposing player get booked or even send off. If the ref notice that a player dived, all he gets is a yellow card and an opportunity to finally master his skill, DIVING. The way they are good at it, supporters can’t even make out if it’s a real injury or a fake.
When did football, man football became such a sissy game, was it something that was brought to us by Daniel Ortega?
WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE?
UEFA is already in it by the introduction of additional assistance referees. This idea I favour whole-heartedly. It basically helps the referee in situations like that Lampard moment in Bloemfontein. For me, that’s all football need, another human to help the referee out, not a machine.
I don’t believe in technology during the game is necessary, be it “goal line technology” or “video replay” because we need to keep the game pure. We all know England will never forget their disallowed goal against Germany in the quarter-final of the 2010 FIFA WORLD CUP, but those are human errors and as human, they are most often than not, going to be part of our everyday dealings. There’s got to be shared responsibilities here, the players’ needs to also play their part in this instance. I understand it’s no longer about the passion and the honest competition but only about the money more than anything. Lets use cricket as a reference even though I do understand the technology there, lets put that aside. Its not only the empire’s responsibility when you have edged the ball to the wicketkeeper, if you know, you walk. When fielding at say Point, Gully or Slips and a batsman happens to edge the ball towards and it bounce just before you make a catch, and you know it bounced, instead of celebrating and saying it’s a catch, you make the job easy for the umpire by telling him it bounced first. When you know you are not out you are given out, you don’t complain, you walk. Now how gentlemanly would this sport be. Football players need to be more responsible and show their love for this game. They have to protect the game they love. I don’t believe any of them want to find themselves in a stop-start type of game.
May be players should be fined after the match upon the reviewing a recording of the game. In cricket players get to be fined half of their match fees or the whole of their match fee for showing decline after being given out. A captain suffers the same fate for his teams’ slow over-rate. Teams have to take part of the responsibility to help FIFA safe the beautiful game. Players have to be fined for not showing respect for the game and not taking into consideration their roles as ‘role models’. May be FIFA is declining technology not ruin football but to protect this ‘religion’, the game we love so much, the beautiful game.
FOR THE LOVE OF PASSION FOOTBALL!!
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