The Epidemic of Defenders Diving

I said in my last post that I'd probably be back in August. However, here I am, back again after barely two days. This time it's not fantasy related though. It's just football in general.

I recently posted a few articles on Substack.

One on my recent trip to Wembley and the Southampton 'spygate' shenanigans.

https://cyprilocks.substack.com/p/i-travelled-to-wembley-hoping-my

The other about the handball rule.

https://cyprilocks.substack.com/p/the-handball-of-the-british-empire

My writing style is a little different on there. It's a bit more substacky, for want of a better word. Either way, the general topic of these articles is my annoyance with how bureaucracy is ruining our beautiful game.

Anyway, I have a little more to say, but as these thoughts are bit more meandering I thought I'd post them here. Where things can be a little less substacky.

Defenders Diving

The first thing I want to have a bit of a whinge about is defenders diving.

You see it multiple times every game. A defender's in possession of the ball, perhaps somewhere near one of their own corner flags. An opposing player is putting them under pressure. There's the slightest of physical contact (sometimes zero contact) and the defender drops to the floor. The ref's whistle blows. Free kick to the defender.

It's diving. Pure and simple. And it drives fans mad, as not only does it stop the game, it rewards cheating and punishes the hard work and tenacity of the attacker.

Contrast it to when an attacking player dives. Free kick to the defender. Yellow card to the attacker.

Even if there is a foul on the attacker the bar for a free kick in their favour is way higher too (partly because it leads to a penalty if it's in the box, which naturally changes the equation a little, but still, there's a massive double standard).

I don't want to sound like a "Back In My Day" old man, but it seems to illustrate how the game has became more dishonest thanks to all the modern rules, not less dishonest.

Attackers are generally a bit more clever and wily than defenders - after all, they're trying to unpick defences and sneak into the goal - so they're the sort of people you'd expect to cheat a little. Whereas defenders are supposed to be men's men. Tough, staunch, manning the barricades. Back in my day a defender would've felt embarrassed if they were even accused of diving. It just wasn't the done thing.

In fact, there was a time when it wasn't really something a striker felt too comfortable with either. I can remember when Jurgen Klinsmann first came to the Premier League (I was born in 1982 - so 'back in my day' was basically the 1990s. Not that long ago. Sort of the beginning of the modern era.) That he dived so readily was actually shocking to people at the time. He was hated for it. It was seen as foreign. Un-British. (Though partly thanks to his ironic diving celebration the British public ended up falling in love with him.)

Now we have a world where defenders dive constantly. Multiple times a game. With no shame whatsoever.

And where strikers still want to dive, but can't get away with it. (Unless they're very sneaky in doing it.)

The game's full of sneaks. Yet people talk about fair play more than ever before.

This brings me to my other whinge. Financial fair play. Actually, I've already typed a fair bit here, so I'll leave that one for the next article..