Men Of Dishonor: Or, How To Cheat and Get Away With It

Diving, or gaining an unfair advantage using theatrics if you prefer, has been the focus in English football once again this week. During the Liverpool vs Birmingham City game on monday night we saw another example of this disgusting behaviour.

With Birmingham 2-1 up and just about coping with the intense Liverpool pressure, David Ngog got between two players and headed for the byline when Birmingham skipper Lee Carsley slid in with an attempted tackle.

With Ngog seemingly going nowhere, some may question Carsley’s decision to slide inside the penalty area, but Ngog took a swan dive, and with television replays showing no contact from Carsley, Liverpool were nonetheless awarded a match-saving penalty.

Unfortunately this kind of action occurs too often, for example, earlier this season Arsenal’s forward Eduardo was found to have dived to earn a penalty in a Champions League tie against Celtic, UEFA subsequently issued a three-match ban after the incident following public uproar but then backed down when Arsenal objected.

Surely if diving and cheating is to be stamped out of the English game then we need to show these players that it will not be tolerated? I’m all for retrospective punishment, it works in rugby union, so why not football? The same could be said for video referees. Would a football supporter really mind if a game overran by ten minutes while video footage was used to sort out contentious decisions?

UEFA has already been trialling goal line referees in this seasons Europa league so maybe that’s a way forward? But why flood the pitch with more officials when a video referee would be more practical?

One final note, the referee in charge of that game on Monday, Peter Walton, will not be officiating in the Premier League this weekend having been dropped from the fixture list by his bosses, which begs the question, why hasn’t Ngog been punished also?