Players cheating, diving, play-acting and generally ruining the game

[PalazioVecchio]

...they haven't gone away. VAR tried to alleviate the problem somewhat. But there still seems to be a hell of a lot of gamesmanship. To follow the Jose ManUre-Ho innovation, its especially prevalent whenever a team is leading by a goal. Time-wasting and downing tools for an hour or more.

Its all making the beautiful game boring to watch.

Ashley Young against us. Its All over Europe too.

Ashley Young rising from the diver image

Crystal Palace 1 Man United 2: Ashley Young’s popular – or more correctly unpopular – image is that of a player who dives to ground rather than rising to a challenge, but there is no denying the determination of a man who has transformed his own and Manchester United’s fortunes over the past year.

www.irishexaminer.com

And ways to stop the problem :

- Award teams 4 points if they trash the opposition 5-0 or better ? Similar to the current bonus-points in Rugby.

- Run the injury-time clock to double if the winning team is having all the injuries. ie 5 minutes of lying on the ground = 10 minutes of injury time at the end of the game. Only applicable to the team that is winning the game - and only applicable if they are still a goal up at the end of the 90 minutes.

- Use statistical software to give a loading to players based upon all their previous behaviours. The Didier Drogba effect.

- Use statistical software to identify managers whose teams have a high 'gamesmanship index'. Do some points-deductions for ten crappy games in a row. The Diego Simeone effect.

- Allow the players to batter each other. Fv.ck it. It is a contact-sport after all. Take a leaf from the Australian-rules playbook.

- Allow the game to continue while injured players roll around the ground - and are tended by medical personnel. As in a true battlefield.

- Allow substitutes onto the pitch for the duration of a fella being treated for injuries.....and said Subs to be removed if the downed player can resume his playing.

- 10 minute sin-bins instead of a Red card. With the Red card being reserved for more serious foul play.

- other ? please tell us......

 

[TheBigToePunt]

Soft free kicks and penalties, and the 'earning' of them, are near the top of the list of things that make modern elite level football s***.

Footballers and managers are, of course, principally to blame. In fairness however, they are highly competitive people under significant pressure. They will always go to the edge of what's permissable and take one step beyond it to see if any advantage is available. It was that way with fouling when more physical contact was permitted, it is now that way with going to ground as that is where the advantage can be found.

That's where refereeing comes in. The second a ref refuses to give a free kick when a player tumbles under minimal contact, the players immediately readjust. It's so simple. Then the game opens up. Instead of that, however, refs seem to live in fear of not giving something they technically should, or even could, have given. To be seen to have possibly missed something seems like a bigger sin to them than to have given it in possible error. The forensic use of VAR both proves and exacerbates this. Everything is now a foul, there is no disincentive to grossly exaggerating every contact, and the constant possibility of reward. Hence players tumble like shameless c**** week in, week out, up and down the country.

Instead of calling this out, the TV pundits normalise it by glossing over it. They never use the word 'cheat', or use all their endless replays and camera angles to identify the many guilty players. They only cross examine the refs performance. And so it goes on. Much of this feels like fear of damaging the image of the product they pay so much for and promote so unceasingly.

The solution is to work backwards from the end point. Start by acknowledging the issue instead of hiding from it. Use coverage to highlight tumbles, exaggerations, and divers. Place the emphasis on how hard the players make it to referee, not on the referee. Reintroduce the concepts of responsibility and of shame, which players and managers operate freely of at the moment.

Then, recalibrate VAR so that slow motion cannot be used. The game doesn't happen in slow motion. Throwing oneself to the ground stands out like a sore thumb in real time. Stop using VAR in this awful way. Remove the incentive.

After that, players will simply adjust. It will take a week at the most. Probably not even that.

Then all that's left is to address football club ownership, the closed shop at the top, the rich getting ever richer, virtue signalling politics, over exposure of the game, ridiculous prices.....

 

[eritheagle]

I loathe it when a player dangles a foot in the air and he lightly gets touched on the sole of the boot and goes down like he’s been shot and gets a penalty.

Surely if he was kicked that badly the player who “kicked “ him would hurt the top of his foot more!!

 

[ASCPFC]

...they haven't gone away. VAR tried to alleviate the problem somewhat. But there still seems to be a hell of a lot of gamesmanship. To follow the Jose ManUre-Ho innovation, its especially prevalent whenever a team is leading by a goal. Time-wasting and downing tools for an hour or more.

Its all making the beautiful game boring to watch.

Ashley Young against us. Its All over Europe too.

Ashley Young rising from the diver image

Crystal Palace 1 Man United 2: Ashley Young’s popular – or more correctly unpopular – image is that of a player who dives to ground rather than rising to a challenge, but there is no denying the determination of a man who has transformed his own and Manchester United’s fortunes over the past year.

www.irishexaminer.com

And ways to stop the problem :

- Award teams 4 points if they trash the opposition 5-0 or better ? Similar to the current bonus-points in Rugby.

- Run the injury-time clock to double if the winning team is having all the injuries. ie 5 minutes of lying on the ground = 10 minutes of injury time at the end of the game. Only applicable to the team that is winning the game - and only applicable if they are still a goal up at the end of the 90 minutes.

- Use statistical software to give a loading to players based upon all their previous behaviours. The Didier Drogba effect.

- Use statistical software to identify managers whose teams have a high 'gamesmanship index'. Do some points-deductions for ten crappy games in a row. The Diego Simeone effect.

- Allow the players to batter each other. Fv.ck it. It is a contact-sport after all. Take a leaf from the Australian-rules playbook.

- Allow the game to continue while injured players roll around the ground - and are tended by medical personnel. As in a true battlefield.

- Allow substitutes onto the pitch for the duration of a fella being treated for injuries.....and said Subs to be removed if the downed player can resume his playing.

- 10 minute sin-bins instead of a Red card. With the Red card being reserved for more serious foul play.

- other ? please tell us......

If they want an exciting attacking game, then I think they could award points for three goal victories. The way to do it would go back to two for a win. Three points for three or more goal margins.

 

[Badger11]

The game doesn't need to stop for a substitute, rolling sub as they do in Rugby will stop one element of time wasting.

 

[Teddy Eagle]

If they want an exciting attacking game, then I think they could award points for three goal victories. The way to do it would go back to two for a win. Three points for three or more goal margins.

They should go back to two points anyway. Three for a win just extends the table too much and doesn't encourage attacking football anyway. The "Big" clubs would be dead set against it as it would lessen their chances of European qualification.
It's been suggested that 0-0 draws shouldn't get any points awarded but that seems a bit harsh on smaller clubs who defend well at the Big Boys clubs.

 

[JRW2]

Strange business this rugby lark. The players spend 80 minutes knocking seven bells out of each other, and the ref. rarely stops the game other than for a law infringement (obviously), a collision of heads or a blood injury. And over 60 years I find it hard to recall ever seeing a trainer/physio/doctor - let alone a possee of them - running on to the pitch to "treat" a player, as routinely happens in football.

I think it was earlier this season that JP went down, and he lay there and lay there and lay there, and then got up and rejoined the game, which the ref. had allowed to go on without interruption.

So my suggestion is that a player who goes down and wants treatment should immediately raise his hand, at which point the ref. stops the game and sends him off for 5 minutes, during which time a substitution can't be made. If he doesn't raise his hand, play continues.

 

[Teddy Eagle]

Strange business this rugby lark. The players spend 80 minutes knocking seven bells out of each other, and the ref. rarely stops the game other than for a law infringement (obviously), a collision of heads or a blood injury. And over 60 years I find it hard to recall ever seeing a trainer/physio/doctor - let alone a possee of them - running on to the pitch to "treat" a player, as routinely happens in football.

I think it was earlier this season that JP went down, and he lay there and lay there and lay there, and then got up and rejoined the game, which the ref. had allowed to go on without interruption.

So my suggestion is that a player who goes down and wants treatment should immediately raise his hand, at which point the ref. stops the game and sends him off for 5 minutes, during which time a substitution can't be made. If he doesn't raise his hand, play continues.

As the saying goes - rugby players always pretend they're not hurt and footballers always pretend they are.

 

[rob1969]

May have ben mentioned earlier in thread in which case apologies. How about the game on until 60 minutes of "ball in play" time reached. Reckon some of todays games would run for more than 2 hours !

 

[ASCPFC]

May have ben mentioned earlier in thread in which case apologies. How about the game on until 60 minutes of "ball in play" time reached. Reckon some of todays games would run for more than 2 hours !

I think the clock should be stopped on certain occasions. Players rolling around could be one. I'm thinking penalties probably take up at least five minutes.

 

[beak]

A lot of players wave around imaginary cards in order to encourage the ref to card an opposition player, I find this very reprehensible and against any spirit of the game that was once cherished.

 

[ASCPFC]

A lot of players wave around imaginary cards in order to encourage the ref to card an opposition player, I find this very reprehensible and against any spirit of the game that was once cherished.

That should be a yellow card to them, in my opinion.

 

[TheBigToePunt]

That should be a yellow card to them, in my opinion.

It increasingly has been, though I think that's perhaps more the result of refs being encouraged to do so by the powers that be than a strict rule change.

Funny thing is, you can get booked for silently waving the imaginary card at the ref (quite rightly) but the whole team, subs bench, and management team can react to a foul on one of theirs by jumping around and screaming like banshees as if attempted murder has been committed, and bookings rarely ensue, so long as the imaginary yellow hasn't been waved!

 

[beak]

That should be a yellow card to them, in my opinion.

we should re-introduce the Corinthian spirit into sport, there is at the moment a tsunami of cheating engulfing the game and it is now a very ugly spectacle that we have to endure.