This weekend in the English Premier League brought around again that great debate about diving! Did he or didnt he?! Ronaldo and Pires (inparticular) where accused by numerous managers, comentators, fans, the media, etc. Ronaldo was accused for diving several times, whilst Pires was accused for perhaps the most obvious dive to win the penalty which earnt them a draw against Pires. As a fan of all football (mostly English and Spanish) we are very quick to try and rule out diving, whilst it seems to happen quite a lot in Spain. I was wondering what its like in your league and what/if anything your FA are trying to do about it? This was taken from tonights Evening Standard- Sir Alex Ferguson today had his say in the great diving controversy by exonerating his own player but blaming others for a decline in standards. United's Cristiano Ronaldo and Arsenal midfielder Robert Pires were both accused of 'cheating' by opponents last weekend. But, while Ferguson was quick to jump to the defence of his teenage star, he appeared to view Pires's behaviour as evidence of a wider problem with gamesmanship. The United manager said: "I think when you bring some foreign players into the game they bring that side of things with them. I certainly don't think Ronaldo was diving on Saturday. But we have seen other evidence over the weekend that it is a problem." Ronaldo angered Charlton players by falling over too much at The Valley on Saturday, while Pires won a penalty against Portsmouth when there seemed to be minimal contact with Dejan Stefanovic. Ferguson added: "I have seen some of the tackles (on Ronaldo) afterwards and all I can say is that even Atlas would have gone down under some of those challenges." His use of Greek mythology may well have been deliberate given that tomorrow's night's Champions League opponents at Old Trafford are Pananthinaikos. Atlas was the legendary giant who carried the world on his shoulders.
Interesting comment from fergie. Especially in light of Yap Stamms book where he says that fergie told his players to go down easily (paraphrasing here). Even more interesting when one sees how many PK’s RVN scored from for his tally last season. He was reported to go down quicker than whore’s knickers. And Ronaldo looks just as unsteady in the area.
Going Down Easily If Fergie had Totti he'd call him a stand-up guy. Fergie's opinion on diving is entirely useless; he's never going to tell me a single thing that isn't pure, unadulterated, self-serving horse manure. Ditto for Wenger.