Football: The Game of pushing, pulling, diving and cheating?

No football fan in their right minds would ever want the beautiful game to be characterized as the title of my article. Pushing and pulling have somewhat become a part of the game, but diving? In recent years there has been too many cases of diving and cheating. Diving, cheating, play acting – is the beautiful game being scarred by all these disgraceful acts?

In recent years, football has been blesed with some of the best players ever. Messi, Ronaldo, Rooney, Neymar… the list goes on. But they all have something in common. They have all been caught diving one time or another in their career. With such obvious talent that they display week-in and week out, do they really have to dive and cheat to gain an unfair advantage?

Don’t tell me you haven’t seen it. All football fans would have noticed players diving in and around the penalty box. And the fact that is alarming is that more often than not, they succeed in getting a penalty or at least a freekick. With half a dozen referees in the field, they still end up missing even the most obvious dives. Agreed, when the referee has seen the dive a yellow card is almost certain. But what if he doesn’t see them? The best leagues in the world like the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, do not have any rules to punish the divers and cheaters. The whole world watches these dives. Gareth Bale diving against Aston Villa still gives me a good laugh. Have footballers become so pathetic?

Ronaldo, Nani, Suarez, Bale, Young, Gerrard, Drogba, Busquets, Ribery… you name them, all the best players in the world have done it and still continue to do so on a regular basis. It is like a cancerous disease that has spread out all over world football. There are a lot of Youtube videos to support my claim. Players like Suarez have such a bad reputation in diving that even when he is on the receiving end of a legitimate foul, he ends up not receiving a freekick/Penalty. Well, Mr. Suarez just had a taste of his own medicine. But then it is only an exception. At the end of the day, the player who dived might have won a penalty and could have unfairly sealed the fate of the opposing team with this act of cheating.

David Moyes has publicly come up against diving. Fifa vice-president Jim Boyce says he believes diving in football is becoming a “cancer within the game”. He is so right. But then, why does the Fifa remain silent on the issue? There are no rules to condemn these acts.

Major League Soccer(MLS) may not be one of the best leagues in the world, but they have taken a step in the right direction. In 2011, they have appointed a Disciplinary Committee who are in charge of fining any player who is found diving. This is such a simple act that other bigger leagues can learn from. But would they? Other Technologies that are being used in Cricket and Tennis might not be plausible to be used in Football because of the delay they might cause. But this piece of action can be used everywhere.

Michel Platini, Sepp Blatter and all the giants on top of the Footballing kingdom must look into this issue with more seriousness. The divers and the cheats should be punished. The Beautiful game has always been known for its beauty. As a massive football fan I hope the divers and cheats do not change that.