Way back in the dark ages of social media (2009) an Arsenal player named Eduardo picked up a pass, ran straight into the penalty box and looked like he was going to score when the Celtic goalkeeper rushed out and slid across the ground to take the ball from him. Eduardo leapt into the air to avoid the contact which certainly would have caused him harm, tumbled when he landed, and the referee awarded Arsenal a penalty.
Having a good old British club like Celtic cheated by a foreign club like Arsenal, the British press went into overdrive with a campaign against “diving” which centered around Eduardo and his “blatant dive.” Tabloids across the UK screamed “stamp out diving” and English national team players were asked their thoughts on diving.
Wayne Rooney said “I have never intentionally tried to dive … It isn’t fair for players to dive and try to cheat the other team. And it is not just cheating your opponents, you are cheating the fans as well.”
Steven Gerrard said “If I ever saw one of my team-mates diving, I’d definitely have a word.”
And John Terry, captain of England, said “I can speak about the England lads and I think it is something we don’t do. We’re too honest.”
Too honest.
UEFA reacted to the furor, suspending Eduardo for 2 matches stating that “the referee had been deceived”. In doing so, UEFA even violated its own internal rules and, in what was one of the first ever cases of using VAR, went to the recorded video footage to “re-referee” the incident.
Arsenal defended Eduardo. Wenger called the proceedings a “witch hunt” and he wasn’t entirely wrong: Eduardo had been singled out by UEFA and the entire British press as the only player in England to have ever dived (other than Robert Pires, it’s only Arsenal players – the foreigners – who dive you see).
Arsenal and Eduardo won their case and the English press (predictably) got the verdict wrong suggesting that UEFA claims that “any contact” now means that it wasn’t a dive. It wasn’t actually “any contact” it was that when UEFA brought the official in to ask him if he thought he’d been fooled, he said no. The official would have called that a penalty every time.
Of course this idea that only foreigners dive was nonsense then and it’s nonsense now. British players, English players, go down just as easily as any other player in the world and have done for decades. The hilarity of Steven Gerrard pretending he would “have a word” with a teammate if he dived is heightened when you are told that the man hurtled himself into the air against Andorra just a few months earlier. Andorra. I’m not even sure if Andorra is an actual country or if it’s that place where the blue aliens come from on Star Trek. And it’s even funnier when you realize that he played two full years with Luis Suarez and nary a word was spoken about the constant, blatant dives.
And Wayne Rooney? Him claiming he never intentionally dived is the biggest joke of all time. His signature move was to do exactly what Eduardo did against Celtic but be much more “clever” about it and make sure he dragged his feet along the ground and kicked the keeper, even though he’d been falling down yards before any contact. This move, which should be dubbed “the Rooney” is the signature move of the Premier League now: forwards routinely kick defenders to draw that all important “any contact”.
All of those are just the most blatant of dives and ones which win penalties or try to win a pen. The reality of English football is that it’s been ripe with divers – and I mean the English ones – for as long as I’ve been watching the game. So, it’s always been high comedy to watch the English press go apoplectic whenever some Johnny Foreigner goes over too easily and declare “the game’s gone mate.” Which they still do on a weekly basis.
The most common form of diving is the bulldog English center forward who falls over at the slightest touch on his back. This player will often back into the defender, then fall over. Harry Kane does this all the time for England and the goal is to win a set piece. This is not only an acceptable form of diving it is encouraged by even the most stalwart “anti-divers” like Sean Dyche who described his imaginary difference between gamemanship and diving back in 2018:
“I will remind you all, we’re not talking about gamesmanship, that’s been there ever since I played and that’s a long time ago. You clip a center forward in the box and he goes down, end of story. We are not talking about that. We’re talking about blatant diving. People who have had no contact at all, people going over.”
When asked if his players dive he says “I’m sure you can find one, but not a key moment, and we’re not talking about gamesmanship. If someone pushes you in the back, you go down.”
This supposed bifurcation between gamesmanship and cheating is all part of the same phenomenon: it’s only bad when someone else is doing it.
So, it’s no surprise that in yesterday’s Euro 2020 semi-final between Denmark and England, Raheem Sterling went over easily to win a penalty. And it’s even less of a surprise that pundits across the land are doing mental gymnastics to justify the dive. I’ve seen them all; some people are playing VAR and slowing down the video to show that “there was contact”, Jamie Carragher is taking the position that this was “street wise”, and still others are just coming out and saying “so what?”
I have more respect for the “so what” folks than I do for guys like Carragher: it was just 3 years ago that Jamie called Neymar a “disgrace” for all of his antics in a tight win over Liverpool.
“You’re frustrated as a Liverpool supporter, but as a football fan watching around the world. They should be embarrassed. I don’t know how they go back to speak to their families and their wives in the players’ lounge. Rolling round on the floor like that, the only time you see that is children at kindergaarden.”
LOL.
Look, gang, the laws of the game are subjective and players are always going to try to find ways to exploit those laws for their advantage. Pretending that your team, or your favorite player, is “righteous” because they refuse to exploit that advantage is a hefty self-delusion. They are all doing it.
I also love the idea that one country’s version of cheating is more acceptable than another’s: Immobile rolling on the ground like he’s been injured only to jump up and join the celebration when his team scores isn’t really any different than Kane diving to win a free kick every time the ball gets near him.
And pretending that your national character or culture precludes this kind of “cheating” is the kind of magical thinking that makes me question whether you are even able to feed yourself – maybe you’re hooked up to some tubes and the aliens are keeping you alive inside a matrix that just plays clips of Wayne Rooney refusing penalties over and over again because “he went down too easily and us English, we aren’t like that” while the Band of the Grenadier Guards plays a somber “It’s Coming Home” in a minor key.
In the final match of Euro 2020, England will play Italy. Both teams will go down easily to win free kicks and penalties. Both teams will claim handball when they know that it wasn’t a handball or play handball and pretend that they didn’t. Both teams will waste time when they are ahead and both teams will complain that the opponent is wasting time.
The idea that only the others do these “bad things” or that only your team gets “bad decisions” is completely laughable. Please, at least try to pretend that you live in a shared reality with the rest of us for a while. Or don’t, and stick to your weird delusions.
Which I’m absolutely certain that the English pundits will do if Italy somehow manage a miracle win on a dodgy penalty. And if you want to know why so many of us foreigners laugh when the English pundits go on a rant about other people diving it’s because we see through your delusions of righteousness.
Brave and honest. Thank you!
Reyes.
Couldn’t agree more with this. Cheating is cheating. I don’t accept it as “part of the game”. I hate diving. But I love football, so unfortunately, I have no choice to put up with it. But when it changes the outcome of history (Rooney vs. Arsenal, or Stirling vs. Denmark) it has to be shouted down in the strongest possible way.
Will the final end up be a diving contest between Italy and England? I hope not, but I’m not holding my breath.
True dat.
And by True dat I mean what Tim’s saying here is true. There is a double standard.
I think you’re romantic to think people are deluded about their higher ground. People act out of self-interest, and that includes setting narratives, whether on the individual or national level.
As my ol’ First Sergeant used to advise, “If you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin’!”
That’s a Yogi Berra line
Cheating is endemic in football. It is everywhere and constant. It can be found in diving (which is indeed as English as it is international); it is about guys rolling on the ground writhing like they lost an eye or a limb, it is about claiming the other sent the ball off limits while it is obvious you’re the one who touched it out. It is about corner kick antics, shirt pulling, judo moves in the box, jumping with leading elbow. It is evidently about falling while no or minimal contact was applied, to obtain a penalty or just because one is about to lose control of the ball. The list is endless. It starts at the most amateur level. It is expected. Some say it is part of the fun. I feel it is a disgrace. It has, I think, no equivalent in any other sport. To eradicate it, we need to start handing out free kicks, penalties and cards very time an obvious cheating action takes place. This should be the clear duty of referees and the VAR teams.
As an Englishman the hypocrisy of many of our journalists, former players and ultimately fans grates. You haven’t even mentioned Michael Owen’s dive vs Argentina in 1998 (and then again in 2002) – a number of years before Eduardo – and literally praised cheating in the England press at the time “now we can dive like Johnny Foreigner too”. It was deemed as particularly righteous being against Argentina because of Maradona and his hand of god.
I may be opening a Pandora’s box here but I do think that historically English culture has had a strong sense of fair play “it’s just not cricket” and sportsmanship – as opposed to gamesmanship. But those days are long gone and players are coached to take every advantage they can. National sport is no different to Club sport – you grumble and shout conspiracy etc when it’s the opposing team who manage to pull one over; and you smile and justify it “we were the better team / were due one to go in our favour” when it’s your team.
I feel sorry for the Danes – personally I didn’t think it was a pen. I also think their own coach cost them the game when he took off Damsgaard and Dolberg – see what I did there? But that’s life and at some point in future the Universe will even things out and they will have their Michael Owen redemption moment.
Side note – I hope they find that nob with the laser and forcibly shine it into his eye continuously for the next month as punishment. Disgraceful.
I appreciate the candid, unbiased and objective analysis of that controversial bit of play.
Bang on the money, Tim. The mental gymnastics from managers, players and hacks is often more entertaining than the game itself was.
An excellent observation also by DavidinLondon that there was once a perceived British culture of fair play and the old chestnut, “It’s just not cricket” was trotted out when sharp practice was observed in any walk of life. If such a code was ever universally observed in British sport, it disappeared long ago.
I do remember shock from Celtic at the antics of Racing Club in 1967 and suspect UK players learnt by exposure how to ‘play the ref’. There’s certainly been no genuine UK moral high ground on cheating, since at least the 80’s, despite media delusions.
I watched the semi final as a neutral. I completely believe that it was not a penalty, irrespective of whether Sterling dived or not. The worst part for me was that VAR did not overturn the ref’s error. At the very least, assuming they lacked the guts to make the call, they could have referred the ref to the monitor and he would have changed his decision.
As a football fan it was really disappointing to see that football rules are so subject to interpretation that one game’s yellow is another game’s ticket to the final of a major competition.
They should scrap VAR for all things apart from offside. At least then we can say that the referee saw it wrong in real time.
The problem is that in order to make things more “consistent” you have to write the laws in ways that make the game less fair. For example, think of the handball law.
For my entire life handball was subjective. Referees were told to look for intent in handball.
Well, last year the Premier League changed that law so that any handball by a defender was a handball. You remember what a mess that created! We were well on the way to smashing the penalties record by like 10x the number of pens. So, then they tried to change the law to “body shape” for defenders and that works a bit better but it’s literally just going back to interpretation.
That said, being more absolute can have advantages as well. Again, the handball law. It does seem a bit unfair to chalk off a goal when an attacking player is struck in the arm but it also seems extra fair for some reason. It just takes the chance that someone was cheating out of the equation.
So, it’s a mixed bag. Every law needs to be looked at and changes need to be playtested but I don’t think “consistency” is a catch-all good.
I hate the rule in (field) hockey where ball to foot is a penalty corner. That’s the go to attacking tactic. Get into the area and hit the ball onto the defender. It’s consistent but it feels like it cheapens the game.
That was very soft, and/or divey. Both Sterling and Kane have a tendency to do that, though the one in the first half against Kane was more likely an actual foul/pen(I think it was called back due to a foul in the buildup?).
Having said that, not like it was a massive highway robbery. England pretty much dominated most of the stats, and if not for some excellent keeping by Schmeichel, would have been out of sight in regulation time.
That doesn’t justify the cheating in this or other matches, but it also doesn’t feel like a massive injustice in this case.
We’re very quick to make clear pronouncements on whether a player going down is a dive or not, but it’s just another of those frustrating “gray areas” in the game where quite often the only person who can really say is the player him/herself. Whether or not there is “contact” can’t be used as the determining factor as to whether a player has been brought down by the actions of another; Eduardo’s “dive” is a perfect example of that as Tim points out. Here’s a player who had recently recovered from a horrendous leg injury, running at full speed when he sees the keeper flying horizontally towards him like a human scythe… he instinctively lifts his legs out of the way and his body momentum takes him face-first to the ground. Doesn’t matter whether there was contact or not, the keeper’s action brought him down. Could he have stayed on his feet? Only at the risk of sustaining another severe injury. Was he right to go down with no contact? I don’t think he had a choice.
This is just another part of the game that invites an element of uncertainty for us as fans. Did Sterling dive? I don’t know. It looked soft but there seemed to be some contact at the hip that could have been enough to unbalance him as the defender coming in from his left tried to ease him towards the goal line (making no attempt to play the ball BTW). But with the ball running away from him, maybe Sterling realized his best hope was to roll the dice and go down. It reminds me of chaos theory: there were too many factors influencing the outcome to ever know for sure what happened, even after microscopic slow-motion analysis (so VAR isn’t the answer either). While we naturally let our loyalties or prejudices color our opinions, anyone who says they know for certain is deceiving themselves.
That shouldn’t have been a penalty. At the very least VAR should have told the referee to look at it again. England were favourites and dominated the game for the most part, so it wasn’t a shock. But it does take away some of the joy of what was a good game of football. Well that, and watching Harry Kane dive and the commentators blatantly lie about it. The English media and their refusal to act with any sense of reality, let alone responsibility is something to marvel at.
As for notions of fair play in the past, not buying it. General standards in society were likely higher, but I don’t think that idea is any different from the mythmaking to hide the hypocrisy we see today with diving. Ok if we do it because we never do it, just not cricket when we get caught out.
There were of course clubs like Corinthians who refused to score from or try and save a penalty under the proclaimed notion that no gentleman would ever intentionally foul. Obviously they were very much an outlier and not the norm.
It was a soft penalty. Mark Clattenberg, the referee analyst on commentary said so, and said a game of that magnitude should never be decided by such a soft call. While the football writers were wrapping themselves in the flag of St George, at least one Englishman took a dispassionate, cleared eyed view of the incident. It was the “I felt contact so I went down” rationale. Sterling came close to saying that in the post math interview, but was smart enough to check himself.
All the same, I cant bring myself to feel sorry for Denmark. That bucket was going to the well every 30 seconds. The bottom predictably fell out. We knew what was coming didnt we? They completely stopped playing football, settling for penalties from the start of extra time. Which frustrated me as a neutral, because they were a match for England on skill and technique for much of the match.They looked tired, but man, those were awful tactics. A lot of them play in England… they know about the non-stop mentality. Speaking of which, dive or not, Sterling is some athlete. You get the impression that he’s still be operating in fifth gear in a 3 hour long match.
Happy for Saka. His final third decision-making is superb, although overall, he struggled to get into the game. Clear first sub for Southgate. My MOTM was Maguire — safe as houses in defence, willing to bring the ball upfield, and the game’s biggest threat at corners.
The more I see of Harry Kane, the less I like him. He didnt cynically undercut anyone jumping for headers, but all that sly diving, man. Ugh. I want England to win the thing, but imma find it hard to root for their captain.
As an Englishman (but also an arsenal fan to be fair) I’ve been thoroughly underwhelmed by Kane in this tournament and pissed at the love in the media seems to have for him.
He has reminded me of the worst of Laca last year, the amount of times players made it to the byline or held it up before crossing and he at best was waiting in the middle behind defenders for the perfect ball or at worst lurking outside the box. At one point Sterling held up the ball for ages before playing shaw in to cross to nobody. I’m asking myself where is Kane and the wide angle shot shows him standing on the edge of the box.
The 1st goal he scored against Ukraine summed up his play and the second issue I’ve had the media narrative of him and Sterling. Kane was standing still when Sterling played a caviar pass to him to score. There was no great movement in that it was made by the ball. What did the pundits say “excellent from Kane that’s what he brings”. Virtually no mention of Sterling. You watch great strikers and they move before the ball (or you know.. at all) Kane hasn’t this tournament.
Sterling has been absolutely excellent and all he’s gotten is hate, then a grudging nod as Kane/Grealish gets all the plaudits. Grealish at least deserves some of them but not even close to the level of Sterling and I can’t help but think it’s about media bias against Sterling/ race.
Also on topic yeah Sterling dived, annoys me more against arsenal but realistically every player does. I used to be more pissed as our reputation meant we got way less calls for than against us despite the time we used to spend in opposition box but no solution will be applied evenly so trying to “Stamp it out of the game” is futile
Great post Tim
I agree with everything you said. The idea that one team is worse then any other in terms of diving is not realistic. One of the worst dives I have ever seen is when Eboue took an absolutely blatant dive in the champions league final to win the free kick that we score our goal on. Google “eboue dive” in champions league if you want to see it.
I think officiating football matches is by far the toughest job for a ref in any major sport which is why I am a chronic ref apologist. As you point out in the post and in the comments, basically every call is somewhat subjective in nature. Its utterly impossible to accurately define “not enough contact” to be a penalty. Everyone’s idea is different which means that inconsistency in the way games are called is inevitable. Nearly every call the ref makes is every bit as subjective as pass interference in American football. Unfortunately do to the nature of the game I don’t think there is any way to make the rules less subjective. With the advent of multiangle ultra slow motion replays we now know just how often refs misses calls. The replays also can make something look a lot different then it does in real time. Myself I suspect the refs have been making the same mistakes forever but now prior to the modern technology no one knew they were missing calls and again that is why I believe the refs get much more grief the they deserve.
Claude
My apologies for attributing a statement to you the other day in the comment section that you did not make. It was Devlin and not you that said Guendouzi and Torriera gave us the best midfield play since the end of the Wenger era. Again my apologies for misquoting you.
Saka has had a great season. He touches the ball alot in the final 1/3 and if he makes great decisions you would expect it should turn into production in terms of goals and assists but so far that has not happened. He has 5 goals and 3 assists in 32 games and >2500 league minutes this year. We clearly need quite a bit more production from him in the future.
(Google: AUDL All-Time Ultimate Frisbee Highlights (Youtube) for a look at a great game– without referees.)
The game of Ultimate has no referees. With a credo called Spirit of the Game where no player will knowingly infract the rules.
A Sport with No Referees
“A truly unique and defining element of Ultimate, Spirit of the Game places the responsibility of fair play solely on the athletes themselves by requiring each player to know the rules and make their own calls, without the help of a neutral official. These underlying principles reinforce mutual respect and trust between opponents; communication and conflict resolution skills; and self confidence – both on and off the field of play.”
Began playing this game in the late-70s. At Rice U in the early-80s. Then at the club level in the mid-80s. The club team I played with in the 1990s qualified for two World Championships. A game I played for almost 20 years.
A highly competitive sport, which has numerous similarities to soccer– was created in 1969. It’s fledgling era through the 80s saw a sponsor (Jose Cuervo) attempt to gain control by monetizing the game. The national players association told Cuervo to pound sand. Ultimate remained an amateur sport. Our association attempted for years to convince the IOC to make Ultimate a demonstration sport– coming close to consideration in advance of the 1988 Seoul Olympics. To no avail. The Olympics discontinued the practice following the 1992 Barcelona Olympics
As of 2018, Ultimate is being played in more than 80 countries by an estimated 7 million men and women, girls and boys. The international governing body, WFDF (World Flying Disc Federation), represents 59 member associations in 56 countries.
The US and Canada now have a professional Ultimate league (avg annual salary is $57k). Yet still– no referees. The game does incorporate what are known as passive observers– who doesn’t rule on plays. But will signal on actions like inbounds/out of bounds calls– or if the disc was released within a ten-count by the thrower. Action rarely stops until a goal is scored.
I’d played several sports in high school. A couple in college. Including soccer. In every one of them– taught tactics that were by rule illegal, or how to get as close to an infraction as possible. Then? In college finding a new game that turned everything I’d been coached on its’ head. Total respect for the game’s rules. Respecting your opponents. Sport in its purest form.
Ultimate became a prism through which I viewed all other sports. At this point soccer is the only sport I still follow closely. Officiated well– soccer is the only other sport that generates a similar esthetic.
First heard of this from Marques Brownlee, my favourite tech nerd on YouTube. Sounds fun and tough. And I like the creed.
Camaraderie between teams on tourney weekends– is way up on the fun list too. Saturday nights would see scores to hundreds of players/SOs and friends in a gym or hall for keggers. There was Ultimate. Then what you did IRL. 😊
I played a couple of English summers around 2004. Great fun, very intense. I loved that upside down lob forwards. Getting it past someone blocking you and putting some curve on it to get it into someone’s path.
Feet stained green and beers afterwards.
That upside down throw is known as throwing a ‘hammer’.
‘Feet stained green and beers afterwards.’
Look long enough? ‘Beers afterward’ must be written somewhere in the rules. 😎
I started playing in Sri Lanka in 2008 and went on a tournament to Chennai, playing on the wide, flat city beach. We drew quite a crowd of nonplussed locals under spotlights for the late games.
Great fun, and after months of breaking for the disc / covering runners both short and long, non-stop, hands down the fittest I have ever been.
Spirit Of The Game was the heart and soul of it.
No doubt about the fitness aspect. Every cut a hard sprint. Every point almost nonstop.
We had some derivative tournaments– Death On The Beach was 3v3 no subs on a much-scaled down field in the sand. Another, Savage 7 was the normal 7v7, regular field– ironman, no subs all day. Six games in one day to win.
SOTG
Why did all those experienced players do that to Saka?
Don’t know. Bad spot for him to be in.
I’d have said getting an early goal was ideal for England. But they stopped attacking and let Italy have wayyy too much of the ball. You could see the goal coming. It got more even with Grealish and Saka on, but maybe too late by then.
Southgate is going to come in for some criticism with both of his PK subs missing theirs. He’s gotten most of his tactics right this tournament, but maybe not today.
Thanks for these fine thoughts. Special thnx for the “band playing in minor key”-part. I’ll remember/cherish that one for the rest of my earthly days. Always looking forward for your next piece.