Actors marring the beautiful game-Les Murray

As the World Cup enters its critical third round, it’s evident that some things never change and, as ever, the players are smarter than the referees.

The grubby epidemic of conning the whistlers with thespian simulation is already worse than it was in 2006.

The conmen are getting away with it, getting fellow professionals sent off and there is no retribution, not even retrospective punishment based on video evidence (which FIFA permits itself to practice).

Kader Keita’s disgraceful con to have Kaká dismissed, thankfully didn’t have an impact on the game’s outcome, nor will the Brazilian star’s suspension affect his country’s longer term fate.

But the play-acting has had serious affects on other games.

On Day 11 a Chilean player conned the willing Saudi referee, Khalil Al Ghamdi, to have Switzerland’s Valon Behrami red carded.

Later in the game no such luck for the Swiss when Steve von Bergens tried the same trick after a gentle touch on the neck from Matias Fernandez sent him to the deck, clutching his face.

But to no avail. Fernandez stayed on and Chile duly won the match against ten men.

Earlier, Greece benefited when Vasileos Torisidis provoked a stupid attempt by Nigeria’s Sani Kaita to kick out at him with an air-swing, but to which Torisidis reacted with a dive.

The Nigerian was red-carded, the game turned and Greece won the match.

FIFA has to act to stamp out this moral decadence which inhibits its capacity to further popularise football. With each World Cup football gets millions of new viewers, including Australia. Many of these new customers turn away and turn off when they see players get away with such blatant cheating.

One has to wonder what in the world goes on at those endless seminars and instruction sessions the World Cup referees get from FIFA before each World Cup.

Do they, one has to ask, get any tips on how to be vigilant of the con men who are tarnishing this tournament and the game unabated?

http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/les-murray/blog/1010019/Actors-marring-the-beautiful-game

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/football/deconstructing-the-myths-how-the-beautiful-game-is-misrepresented-by-the-ignorant-in-australia-20100508-ukvc.html

CRAIG FOSTER
May 9, 2010

People who know little about football in this country are quick to pass judgment on the beautiful game.
.....
and a vital lesson for Australia to learn. And that is, that most of the world plays differently to us.
For the rest of the planet, this is simply an accepted part of the rich tapestry of the world at play. Here it's seen as a threat: 'Oh no, we don't like how those people in South America play. And how about that nasty Thierry Henry - didn't he cheat by using his hand in a match recently?'

Yes, Henry was a shocking cheat against Ireland in the qualifier for the 2010 FIFA World Cup by manipulating the ball with his hand. But the wider issue is what this says about the French approach to life and sport, as reflected through their reaction to the event, which attracted broad condemnation. This is why I was pleased to see a negative reaction from France generally over the incident.

It is important to recognise that Australian concepts of what constitutes fair play in sport are inherited from our forebears - and they are concepts which I passionately support. But for a kid from the extremes of poverty in many areas of Africa, Asia or South America, do you honestly believe that having clawed and scraped their way from nothing to the higher echelons of the game, that when an opportunity presents itself to achieve a result by cheating in some way, that many will not do so without a moment's hesitation?

This is the reality of international football and something that Australian players understand very well, having been subject to all manner of surreptitious punching, kicking and gouging over the years. Yet it is not our place to lecture other countries on their approach to sport, nor to moan about this approach after the game, something which has become far too prevalent in recent years, but rather to get on with the game and to prove ourselves good enough to overcome all of these scenarios.

Punish every instance of blatant diving with match bans after the game. In the heat of the battle the referee won't get the best view of everything, so they need all the help they can get. Most matches at this level are reviewed anyways, so this would just further the process.

They've been calling for this for years, but FIFA sees it as undermining the authority of the referees. I can see where they're coming from, and you don't need the referees authority being undermined further than it already is. Football is the only sport where a referee/umpire can make a decision and the players will stand there and shout at him at the top of their lungs for the next two minutes and get away with it.

Basically you're going to get events where the referee has booked a player for a foul and awarded a free kick, only for the review panel to find that the aggressor didn't touch him at all and for him to be charged with diving after the match. It's not a good look.

Edited by afromanGT: 22/6/2010 11:58:33 PM