FC Barcelona Aren't Cheaters, Not to Say There Aren't Problems in World Football

Those of you that follow world football have, most likely, heard vicious claims and accusations of cheating being directed towards FC Barcelona, primarily because of the horrible show they put on against Real Madrid CF in this year’s Champions League semifinal.

Is it really appropriate to be making these ignorant accusations though?

A shallow look into the games they play may indicate that, yes, they are manipulating referees in order to gain possession, penalties and a general upper hand through what appears to be an audition for El Cor de la Ciutat—which must be cheating, because of their success at doing so.

Let’s not forget that teams don’t call penalties for themselves though.  Someone else makes these calls.

Football clubs, even the best in the world, are going to continue to look for the dive in order to gain some sort of advantage over their opponents as long as the refs continue to award said advantage to them.  I don’t blame them.  What's to stop them from doing so?

The way referees handle matches must be changed.  Yes, it can be done.  If you were able to catch the Champions League final this year, you would know that Viktor Kassai handled both himself and the match very nicely.

Let’s hope some of that will rub off on other officials.

I'm not letting Barça off the hook just yet though.  It would be nice if they actually lived up to their claims of being més que un club, rather than just throwing blind words out there.

To put it bluntly, their actions have been unethical and hypocritical in the 2010-11 season.  There is no doubt that they are the best club in the world right now—as far as skill and teamwork goes—but the way they accomplished that feat this season, as a whole, was enough to make my nostrils flare and eyes water.

When you intentionally exaggerate physical contact with an opposing player to enhance or create a foul, you are making a false claim to the referee and therefore participating in unethical and unsportsmanlike conduct.

When you do this while playing for a team that claims to be more than a club, you become a hypocrite. 

I hope the stench that these players so rudely left me with is enough to wake themselves up as well and serve as a reminder of the motto they should be playing by.