My thoughts on diving..

[Arsenal4Life]

First off i'd liek to say i know im going to get flammed for saying this.. please dont be to harsh :)

This is really the biggest issue in soccer todat imo. Is it ok? Who does it? When do they do it?

As far as I can see... diving has taken over completly. All players do it, maby not all the time, but if they are int eh box and there is a questionable tackle... they are going down.

Diving is now part of the game, you cna go as far as calling it a skill knowadays:( . Complaining about it will do nothing, it isnt just the agrentinians and portugese... its the english, french and cechs as well.

I play a fairly competitive league of football... and was a fire believer in not diving. This year has changed that, and i may not dive all the time.. if it is in the good being of my team, im goin down :rolleyes:

My theory can clearly be shown by watching Thiery Henrys progression from hating diving, to diving himself while still hating it. He originally would not go to Barcelona because of the diving... he watched for a year, saw it was everywhere.. then he had no reason to not go.

What is your opinion on diving? To me, it is part of the game!

[Yid_Army99]

I fokin hate it. It's absolutely outrageous that people are given calls there way that help them when there is no foul. It's a disgrace. I live in America and when I talk to people they think footy is a sport for ************** because of diving. Because it's not "manly". Obviously they're clueless, but diving is giving the sport a bad name here and that really annoys me.

Diving is not part of the game, human error is part of the game. That's just how life is, but when you're decieving some one to the degree of exaggerating a small touch or going down without contanct it's disgusting. It's just like saying brawls are part of football. No, it's not how you play the game. Everything is part of football, but the game? no sir.

[goonsquad]

Diving is cheating. However I must say that referees will almost never give a penalty if you get fouled but stay on your feet. So players do what they have to do, to help their team win. It sucks, but it'll be hard to change.

[btkel88]

Diving is starting to ruin the game because defenders are so afraid to make tackles in the box in fear of a pk. Any time a South American or Spanish player gets the ball in the box he will either get his shot off or dive, every time.

However, i think it could easily be discouraged by having referees review the match afterwards, and then start some system to track each player's amount of dives. This could lead to yellow cards and suspensions for the player, which I think would put an end to diving.

[dannytoone]

Diving can be cheating, but it can also be a defense against brutal defenders. Sometimes defenders will attack certain players and when referees don't do anything about it, the players will dive any time the defender closes in. Anything to get the refs to notice and prevent their own injury.

[COPA17]

i have to agree with yid army, it gives football a bad face here in the states. people always complain to me how futbol is a pu$$y sport, because the players go down whenever theyre touched. me being a defender, i despise it all the more when someone goes to ground from minimal contact. however, when i get into the box, and if i get hit in a questionable manner, im not gonna stay up unless i have a clear shot on goal.

[j.fisher]

i have to agree with yid army, it gives football a bad face here in the states. people always complain to me how futbol is a pu$$y sport, because the players go down whenever theyre touched. me being a defender, i despise it all the more when someone goes to ground from minimal contact. however, when i get into the box, and if i get hit in a questionable manner, im not gonna stay up unless i have a clear shot on goal.

So what you're saying is that you HATE diving... unless you get touched, then you'll dive?

[Powdered Water]

I hate it too, but physical football will lead to more and more diving anyway. If you're getting abused this way and that way, then enough is enough and you go down. That's the beginning of 'diving' and there is a thin red line between that and just going down to look for a nod from a ref.

It's the consequence of the way football has been developing I'm afraid.

[gatorguin]

For me, I can accept the fact that football can sometimes be theatrical. Do I wish players fell only when a true foul occurred? Of course. But, what really annoys me is when they roll around on the ground feigning some sort of horrific injury. Dude, we saw the replay, he barely grazed your shin. Get up and play. You embarrassing yourself and the sport.

[Tashinho]

Diving is cheating end of!! Its not to prevent getting injured at all. Youth setups tell them that they have to cheat to win and refs are always biased and will never card certain people mainly scummy mancs. Should be a red card everytime and ********** boy Ronaldo should get burnt at the stake

[ArtVandelayLFC]

Diving is a problem, no doubt, but handing out punishments after reviewing replays of a game is ABSOLUTELY NOT the answer. There's just way too much gray area between what is a dive and what is just a guy losing his balance naturally after contact to make post-game punishments for diving feasible. For those who propose handing out punishments only for "clear" dives, again, where do you draw the line?

The rule that I hate more than just about any other rule in football is the yellow card for a dive; referees seem to incorrectly hand these out even more than they wrongly award fouls for dives, and its often based largely on reputation (Interestingly, I watch a lot of English football, and I can't recall ever seeing an Englishman booked for diving, even though English footballers do dive on occasion, believe it or not). I mean, if referees could accurately distinguish whether or not a player dove, logic suggests that we wouldn't see nearly as many dives incorrectly ruled as fouls as we do at the moment.

I think the best solution to the problem of diving is some form of in-game video replay. More specifically, this would likely involve the fourth official having access to a television screen to review questionable calls, probably limited to those in (and possibly just outside) the penalty area. One problem that might arise is how to determine which calls are questionable enough to review, but I think there is already enough subjectivity in football officiating that adding a little more subjectivity wouldn't hurt that much. Overall, I think in-game video replay is the best way to combat diving (Incidentally, I think it should already be in use for offside calls and deciding whether balls cross the goal line, considering how black and white these decisions are compared to foul calls).

[hazy davey]

If reviewing replays after the game is a bad idea because of the subjectivity involved (maybe he lost his balance?) then in-game video review isn't going to solve anything either.

Actually, I don't think the replays after the game are a bad idea. It's the brave (or foolish) official who will actually issue a card when a player dives but by reviewing video after the match you can at least discipline the serial offenders. And sure there will be some injustices. Sometimes there may well be a fine line between "diving" and going to the ground on contact and simply losing ones balance, but if they started really cracking down, with the help of video, I think we'd all be amazed at how less clumsy certain players become.

[TheLastLineMonster]

some people will do ANYTHING if they think it will assist their game in anyway. I think it is rediculous, and there need to be some HELPFUL regulations to keep them from doing it.

[ArtVandelayLFC]

I probably should have been more clear. What I'm against is reviewing replays afterwards and handing out punishments for suspected dives; what I would like to see is in-game replays to decide whether or not a play was a foul. My main contention is that I want to see the "powers that be" in football make it easier for referees to get calls correct during the game because it's a MUCH better approach than trying to punish people for diving, then hoping that they will dive less in the future. Sure, there are some instances of players going down with absolutely no contact, but many, maybe even most, of the plays fans complain about as being dives are just to debatable to be handing out punishments for them (like the Italy vs. Australia penalty, although that call probably deserves its own thread). I just think the most effective way to improve the officiating with respect to diving is by helping referees get calls right, not by punishing suspected divers, does as much harm as good. And if you think it would help to introduce riduculously draconian punishments against suspected divers, well that would make it even more of a travesty when a player gets punished for a borderline dive/ loss of balance.

[TheLastLineMonster]

yeah, they shouldnt just have the ref's opinion, they need to have replays counting

[kjksccr]

I would love to be a ref. Player is rolling around holding his shin and I wave play on. Easiest solution. Nobody's interested and there is no magic spray coming.

If a guy dives on me when I am defending he will pay for it with a real foul later and I will tell him "now that was a foul." I actually had a pub league game against an Iranian team and the ref didn't show so we had a friendly. I was closing down this twat that has dove on me before and he actually jumped in the air and fell before I even stuck a foot in. He told me he thought I was going to kick him. #1) there is no ref wtf are you doing? and #2) if there was any doubt about your diving it is now removed.

I always tell people in the US to watch the Prem if they want to see soccer without diving. In fact, I usually tell them it is quite a cultural thing and the Northern Europeans just don't do it as much.

[alain_9510]

My thoughts...

There needs to be greater punishment for diving in order to stamp it out. Therefore, if I were in charge, the rules would be:

Dive, spotted by an official in-match: straight red card

All penalties and free kicks would be reviewed after the match on video. Unpunished dive = 1 match ban. 2nd dive = 2 match ban. 3rd dive = 3 match ban, etc.

Man Utd can't afford to lose Ronaldo, ergo SAF will tell him to stop diving. Same with Drogba, Gerrard, our own Eboue, etc.

[ArtVandelayLFC]

My thoughts...

There needs to be greater punishment for diving in order to stamp it out. Therefore, if I were in charge, the rules would be:

Dive, spotted by an official in-match: straight red card

All penalties and free kicks would be reviewed after the match on video. Unpunished dive = 1 match ban. 2nd dive = 2 match ban. 3rd dive = 3 match ban, etc.

Man Utd can't afford to lose Ronaldo, ergo SAF will tell him to stop diving. Same with Drogba, Gerrard, our own Eboue, etc.

I completely disagree with this line of thinking. Sure, there would probably be less diving if rules like these were implemented, but the positive of having less diving would be far outweighed by the negative of all the players that would be suspended unfairly. In my opinion, there's just too much interpretation (as well as personal bias, i.e. any play involving Cristiano Ronaldo) involved to make it a good idea to hand out punishments for dives, much less the draconian punishments you're describing. I realize there's also a lot of interpretation involved in simply deciding what is and isn't a foul, but I think such interpretation is way more essential to officiating a game of football, and one goal of the powers that be (in football and in any other sport) should be to eliminate as much referee interpretation and subjectivity as possible.

I guess it comes down to this: whereas many fans look at a foul called that they suspect was a dive and say "that's a shame, that player should be booked/suspended", I say "that's a shame, if the ref was allowed to take even one look at a replay, he would have gotten that call right." I have a hard time blaming a player that I suspect took a dive, even if it's fairly obvious, when the people running football are not doing nearly as much as they could (like in-game replay, or multiple referees) to help referees get calls right.

[Alan_V]

Saw a report on Sky last night that starting in January, match officials will review the match they just worked from the televised tape. He will have the authority to issue yellow cards if he feels that diving occured that he was unable to clearly see.

Good first step. The official is not being overruled by the league, which FIFA has issued an opinion on. Spotting and correctly calling a dive from the pitch is not an easy task.

[Bluechester]

Anyone who dives should be shot and drug out to the pasture simple as that