Diving in soccer has reached epic proportions. It changes the outcome of games. Just look at Zinedine Zidane - his red card in the 2006 World Cup Final was the likely reason for his team's defeat. Granted, it is difficult to head-butt somebody and not receive a red card, but the Italian culprit, Materazzi, sure made a spectacle of the event. He flopped to the ground like he'd been shot in the chest at close range with a shotgun. Clearly an over-exaggeration, but a symbol of recent developments in soccer.
There are several suspects when it comes to diving. Ariel Ortega of Argentina is a central figure. "El Pitufo" ("The Smurf") developed a reputation as a diver. As the smallest player on the field, Ortega likely developed the approach in an effort to protect himself from larger opponents. This approach cannot be entirely faulted. Big guys can hurt you. As a matter of fact, they can crush you, break your leg, and receive a 3-match suspension, while you miss 6-9 months recovering and rehabbing your injury. But what makes Ortega and other divers notorious is that they often dive in anticipation of contact - without ever having been touched.
Defenders committing themselves to sliding tackles are most open to a dive of this nature, as officials already view such tackles with suspicion. But seriously.... you can get hit, fall down, show evidence of pain, and get your point across to the official. Propelling yourself through the air like a flying squirrel hardly seems necessary. In fact, it brings negative attention to yourself and the game. Best to fight through those challenges you can, go down when you can't, and save the theatrics for another, more appropriate setting.By itself, diving is bad, but not destructive. The problem for me has been diving in connection with a new form of "fair play" - playing the ball out of touch when an opponent is on the ground.
It is my recollection that playing the ball out of touch when an opponent was on the ground developed in England, a league where players do not go to ground very easily. If a player was on the ground, he was hurt. Perhaps still able to play, but in need of some form of medical attention (bring on the "magic spray!"). Thus, when a team played the ball out of bounds so that a player could receive said attention, they felt confident that there was no gamesmanship afoot. The player was, indeed, in pain. But the infiltration of the Premiership by foreign players has seen a marked increase in the number of dives, and the number of players who lay on the ground, feigning injury, in an effort to stop an attacking opportunity or waste time. When the team with the ball fails to play it out of touch, the team with the man on the ground cries poor sportsmanship.
Fortunately for everybody, I have a solution. Dive or no dive, from now on, when a player goes down, no team should ever play the ball out of touch. Players should continue on while the man is on the ground, and press any advantage they may have as a result. If the ball goes out of play, then the player may receive medical attention, but that attention should be given on the sideline. Bring on the cart, remove the player from the pitch, and give him the treatment he needs on the sideline while play continues. And don't let him back on the field for 5 minutes.
With such measures and expectations in place, players will know ahead of time that if they go down and stay down, they will place their team at a disadvantage. If they are truly hurt and unable to continue, a substitution can be made and the team can return to 11 men more quickly. Like, say, for instance, when your leg gets broken (poor Totti, he shouldn't dribble so much).I fully believe that this approach will cut back on diving, but will be more effective at preventing players from lingering on the ground and disrupting play. Players who dive will have the proper motivation to get back on their feet when the official does not see fit to award a free kick, instead of staying on the ground attempting to draw the official's sympathy. Maybe then we'll see a return to officials calling actual fouls.
And where should this revolution start? That's right, England. Let the English, the inventors of the Beautiful Game, be the ones to tell players "Tough luck - stay on your feet and grow a pair". Then FIFA can create guidelines for officials to follow that have the benefit of being tested in an intense game-day setting. I'm looking forward to it already! Maybe then we can turn our attention to what really matters, awesome goal celebrations! Flips, dances, pretending to be Elvis and using the corner flag as a microphone... All great stuff.
As it turns out, you can get a yellow card these days for taking your shirt off after scoring a goal. Seems pointless to me, since the rule was put in place to prevent the game from being slowed down by players who couldn't figure out how to get their shirts back on. Just keep guys from rolling around on the ground, that should save you 5 minutes of action each game.
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