Diving Kuntz

By Michael Cotton

The recent issue of diving has raised its ugly head again, with the high profile case of Robben falling theatrically to the floor as he had been shot when Reina, wrongly, raised his hand to him. It got me to thinking that modern players do seem to dive more and more often and surely the time has come for the authorities to start looking at punishment for offenders. How did this situation come about? Many people blame it on the influx of foreign players into the English game, and that it is not an English problem. This is correct to a certain extent, whilst it will always be the foreigners who get highlighted as serial divers, we cannot dismiss the fact that many British players also take a tumble in order to get a player sent off. Robbie Savage and Joe Cole are just two examples of British players diving.


Overall the last weekend of Premiership games, there was more example of diving. The most blatant was the dive by Reyes against Bolton in order to win a penalty. Reyes seems to be the type of player who does get targeted by the opposition but he does not do himself any favours by going down so theatrically.

Of course it is not just Reyes who dives; each club has their players who have developed a reputation for taking a tumble. I am sure everyone can remember the laughable actions of Rivaldo in the 2002 World Cup when he fell to the ground as he had been shot. The cause of this collapse was the football bounced off his foot when Turkish player, Hakan Unsal passed it to him in order for a corner to be taken. At Spurs (just to show I am not bias and can criticise my own club) we have had some of the best divers in the game. Jürgen Klinsmann arrived in England with the reputation as the worst diver in the game; his actions in the early 1990s in a Champions League game for Monaco to get the AC Milan player sent off disgusted us all.

Upon arriving in England it soon became clear that he could not get away with that sort of behaviour and he turned the reputation in a celebration that was copied all over the country on a Sunday morning. (I would have copied the celebration, but I only ever scored own goals). David Ginola is another Spurs player who dived at every opportunity and I remember one game against Wimbledon when the Spurs section of the crowd applauded the referee when he finally booked Ginola for his persistent diving. This is what needs to be done; the referees need to have the conviction to book players who dive. The laws of the game allow them to do so and they need to stamp out this problem.

Its not just referees who need to act in order to eradicate the problem, clubs need to instigate their own procedures to punish their players who dive. The Times have started an excellent campaign, which today received the backing of the Sports Minister Richard Carbon, to eliminate diving from our fair shores. The Times's campaign has also received widespread support from clubs in the Premiership, with notable exception of Arsenal, Manchester United and Manchester City who have all said they are not interested. Chelsea, West Ham United and Fulham have all yet to respond.

Soccer AM have run a campaign, of sorts, against diving, by showing footage of players going down ‘Platoon' style and this sort action is another helpful reminder to players that fans will take the piss out of them when they look like pillocks. There was a time when players would not dream of taking a dive, even if they were genuinely fouled. It was a matter of pride that they would not show weakness in front of their opponents. Football is after all, a mans game.

To find more about The Times's campaign against diving visit http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,27349,00.html.

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