The sickness at the heart of sport

9:42am Thursday 17th May 2012 in Letters By Reader letter

The sickness at the heart of sport The sickness at the heart of sport

NOW that our domestic football season is over, it is very clear that diving and conduct verging on cheating have become an accepted part of the modern game.

When even serious TV commentators come out with comments like "He’s done well, and won his side a penalty" the word dive or cheat are seldom used, but they might say he went down rather lightly.

Meanwhile in the stands if an opposing player goes down he’s greeted by chants of “cheat,cheat” but if it’s one of their players they get rapturous applause.

We know that this element of the game was imported mostly from Italy whose players would go down at the slightest touch as if hit by a sniper’s bullet.

But is this really what the beautiful game has come to or does this just reflect our modern society were anything goes and any sense of decency and honour belongs to a bygone age?

So embedded in the modern age has this become that during practice a session is taken on the techniques of diving and other dark arts of the game.

I wonder what the likes of Best, Law, Matthews and Dean would make of it?

We even see it creeping into other sports now with cricketers refusing to walk from the crease when they know contact with the bat was made, and snooker players who have made a double contact with the cue ball not owning up.

We even had a rugby union player biting a fake blood capsule to fake a mouth injury to get a player sent off.

Maybe it’s me and I’m just a spoilsport, or something fundamental has changed in the world we live in, and sport is not what it used to be.

H Bradbury, Loughrigg Avenue.

Comments(12)

pitbullboxing says...
10:00am Thu 17 May 12

You have got that right. Football needs video technology- and fast.

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mikeperry109 says...
2:06pm Thu 17 May 12

And furthermore that complete waste of money the Olympic Games are allowing drug cheats to take part.

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i5tola says...
9:47am Fri 18 May 12

Football used to be a contact sport, falling down was part of it. Goal Keepers got the same treatment as any other player got. Taking your lumps was also part of it. If you did not like it,stay home. Nobody says you have to play. The rules of the game are like taxes,they add new ones each year and pretty soon you,re drowning in them. And you can never go back to the way it was. No matter who is in charge.

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frankly says...
11:09am Fri 18 May 12

you are correct about goalkeepers, i was one,albeit amatuer..Akeeper could be charged fairley, a keeper had to bounce the ball every three steps if he wanted to get to the edge of his area before kicking it upfield. Now you cant evenbreathe on a keeper without him getting a free kick, and keepers now can pick up a through ball and stroll to the edge of the area in safety.The only good thing, was when they stopped a defender backpassing so that the keeper could pick it up, that did slow down the game.

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Bill Bradbury says...
7:42am Mon 21 May 12

Harry you are absolutely correct but the rot set in when referees under pressure from the FA and managers stopped abiding by the rules of the game. If you were to apply the code book today you would end up sending off the whole teams leaving perhaps the two goalkeepers. Dissent is an automatic yellow card,- with some players and their mouths a red card a few moments later. Diving is a yellow card for "ungentlemanly conduct" i.e. trying to get your opponent sent off. Arguing and failing to get 10 yards, should be like in Rugby, 10 yards further up the field.
However it's not going to happen and refs, through the pressure of assessors and the FA, will turn a blind eye to the rule book.
I agree with Pittbullboxing video technology would stop a lot of cheating. Saw a dive this week-end when the "guilty??" player was nowhere near him. Run that through a video and the "diver" would have been off. That would stop it eventually.

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Bill Bradbury says...
7:45am Mon 21 May 12

Harry you are absolutely correct but the rot set in when referees under pressure from the FA and managers stopped abiding by the rules of the game. If you were to apply the code book today you would end up sending off the whole teams leaving perhaps the two goalkeepers. Dissent is an automatic yellow card,- with some players and their mouths a red card a few moments later. Diving is a yellow card for "ungentlemanly conduct" i.e. trying to get your opponent sent off. Arguing and failing to get 10 yards, should be like in Rugby, 10 yards further up the field.
However it's not going to happen and refs, through the pressure of assessors and the FA, will turn a blind eye to the rule book.
I agree with Pittbullboxing video technology would stop a lot of cheating. Saw a dive this week-end when the "guilty??" player was nowhere near him. Run that through a video and the "diver" would have been off. That would stop it eventually.

Report this post »

Bill Bradbury says...
7:46am Mon 21 May 12

Harry you are absolutely correct but the rot set in when referees under pressure from the FA and managers stopped abiding by the rules of the game. If you were to apply the code book today you would end up sending off the whole teams leaving perhaps the two goalkeepers. Dissent is an automatic yellow card,- with some players and their mouths a red card a few moments later. Diving is a yellow card for "ungentlemanly conduct" i.e. trying to get your opponent sent off. Arguing and failing to get 10 yards, should be like in Rugby, 10 yards further up the field.
However it's not going to happen and refs, through the pressure of assessors and the FA, will turn a blind eye to the rule book.
I agree with Pittbullboxing video technology would stop a lot of cheating. Saw a dive this week-end when the "guilty??" player was nowhere near him. Run that through a video and the "diver" would have been off. That would stop it eventually.

Report this post »

Bill Bradbury says...
7:47am Mon 21 May 12

Harry you are absolutely correct but the rot set in when referees under pressure from the FA and managers stopped abiding by the rules of the game. If you were to apply the code book today you would end up sending off the whole teams leaving perhaps the two goalkeepers. Dissent is an automatic yellow card,- with some players and their mouths a red card a few moments later. Diving is a yellow card for "ungentlemanly conduct" i.e. trying to get your opponent sent off. Arguing and failing to get 10 yards, should be like in Rugby, 10 yards further up the field.
However it's not going to happen and refs, through the pressure of assessors and the FA, will turn a blind eye to the rule book.
I agree with Pittbullboxing video technology would stop a lot of cheating. Saw a dive this week-end when the "guilty??" player was nowhere near him. Run that through a video and the "diver" would have been off. That would stop it eventually.

Report this post »

Bill Bradbury says...
7:49am Mon 21 May 12

Harry you are absolutely correct but the rot set in when referees under pressure from the FA and managers stopped abiding by the rules of the game. If you were to apply the code book today you would end up sending off the whole teams leaving perhaps the two goalkeepers. Dissent is an automatic yellow card,- with some players and their mouths a red card a few moments later. Diving is a yellow card for "ungentlemanly conduct" i.e. trying to get your opponent sent off. Arguing and failing to get 10 yards, should be like in Rugby, 10 yards further up the field.
However it's not going to happen and refs, through the pressure of assessors and the FA, will turn a blind eye to the rule book.
I agree with Pittbullboxing video technology would stop a lot of cheating. Saw a dive this week-end when the "guilty??" player was nowhere near him. Run that through a video and the "diver" would have been off. That would stop it eventually.

Report this post »

Bill Bradbury says...
6:12pm Mon 21 May 12

Sorry about multiple postings Yahoo is playing up today so it informs me so it tells me nothing was sent -and it had some hours later as I have been in Blackpool all day.

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pitbullboxing says...
12:31am Tue 22 May 12

we still need a delete button here.

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Bill Bradbury says...
6:16am Tue 22 May 12

pitbullboxing wrote:
we still need a delete button here.
I am sure the technology on the website someone could delete such as it has happened before with others. Bit annoying to both sender and readers. Sorry again! (hope this goes ok as "tomorrow is another day")

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