Diving in….to stop the divers

By: Kieran | August 1st, 2009

Football Federation Australia have taken unprecedented steps to stop divers, or ‘the act of simulation’ to put it properly. The FFA’s match review panel will analyse suspicious incidents and now have the power to hand down two match bans. This will mean the A-League will be only the second league in the world to have such measures, the other being the Scottish Premier League. FFA CEO Ben Buckley told the media at the announcement of the new rules,

“The regulations are reviewed at the end of each season. It is important to us that the Hyundai A-League’s disciplinary provisions are not only consistent with those of the sport internationally, but also with community expectations within Australia…I think everyone, fans, players and media – believe that simulation is unacceptable, and I am sure this change will be appreciated by the whole football community.”

The new rules mean that players who are judged to have dived to earn penalties or get opponents carded will be suspended for two matches (if the match day ref misses it). It also means that players unjustly sent off as a result of the opposition diving will have their red cards rescinded. But…the result won’t change. Now does anyone else see the problem with this? Ok hypothetically, Gold Coast vs Melbourne Grand Final, its the 87th minute and a GC player dives and gets a penalty, he scores and Gold Coast win the title. Then, the review panel ban the player for two games for diving. Gold Coast will have won the title illegally, and Melbourne fans will be really really pissed. Doesn’t seem like a great idea. Now I know thats only one possibility, and it will help stop diving, but I just can’t ignore all the things that could go wrong.

However, the majority of the A League managers seem to think differently. Both Aurelio Vidmar and Lawrie McKinna are supportive of the new rules. Infact, Vidmar is quoted by ESPN as saying,

“It’s obviously going to help clean up the divers and it’s a pretty harsh penalty as well, it will be interesting to see who is the first that gets caught…I don’t think it happens very much in our game, certainly in Europe it’s much more frequent … but I think this will help make it a much cleaner and more honest game.”

Lawrie McKinna, whose team were hurt by diving theatrics from Chinese side Tianjin Teda in last months ACL group stage, also backs the move, saying “I know the reaction of the crowd at Bluetongue Stadium that night was scathing of the Chinese, it was just farcical because we’re not used to it.” Before going on to add, “We’re trying to get supporters to games and if people see that it turns the Aussie audiences off.”

However, Gold Coast United coach Miron Bleiberg is not as convinced (maybe I shouldn’t have used his club in the example), who thinks it is too open to interpretation. Bleiberg said, “See Lucas Neill in the World Cup (his foul against Italy) … did he make a foul or didn’t he? You don’t know and I don’t know. The idea in general, to go against cheating in any field of life, it’s politically correct. But if it will bring controversy, we don’t need it.”

If your really interested in the exact changes, 442 has put them into its article.

So what do you think? Good idea, or stupid piece of needless regulation? Let us know, Comment!