Dirty Cheating B*stards

[f4f3]

Now I don't often rant about football, but last night I watched Sean Wright Phillips deliberately get another player sent off by cheating (he dived when running past a Newcastle player).

Why, now that TV evidence is available, hasn't he been charged and fined by the football authorities? Why isn't the red card being rescinded?

This sort of cheating is really putting me off watching football.

Comments

[pigeonhed.livejournal.com]

I watched that match and I didn't see Wright-Phillips dive. I saw Elliott put an arm out slightly, enough to knock a fast player off balance. I don't believe it was worth awarding a yellow card for, which is what Elliott actually received having been booked in the first half for pulling Drogba back with an arm around his neck. He also escaped without being booked for kicking Joe Cole in the back when Cole fell on the ball although his team mate who did the same was booked.

Why not aim your rant at the referee Steve Bennett whose inconsistency is remarkable. He rightly booked Geremi for not giving the ball back when he had awarded a corner (though I thought that was a mistake) but ignored the shove by Solano on Geremi which was surely as serious an offence and arguably was violent conduct and hence a red card. He took no action either when Scott Parker screamed abuse in Del Horno's face after a slip won Chelsea a free-kick (another mistake by the referee.)

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Mostly because I didn't see the other incidents - I only caught the last 10 minutes. Wright didn't look knocked off balance, he pulled his own feet up to make it look like he'd been pushed over and dived. It was deliberate and it worked - the ref was conned, Elliot went off.

I don't object to bad refereeing - although I don't see any reason why we don't have a fourth official as they do in rugby - because the referee isn't deliberately trying to cheat. Diving players are, as are those who feign injury, and when this is shown on a replay they should be punished for it. Otherwise the game gets to be more of a joke every time it happens.

[pigeonhed.livejournal.com]

I accept referees making some mistakes, (though some are inexcusable) and after seeing the Elliott sending off from several angles on Match Of The Day I can see why he made it. Elliott puts his arm out then pulls it back, the ref probably had no opportunity to see the second part of that. The Assistant did and should have done. So yes you are right about the need for a Fourth Official.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Thanks - an am I right about Philips being a cheat?

Just to make it clear - this is the first time I've ever seen him dive, and I'd have the same contempt for any other plater doing the same.

[pigeonhed.livejournal.com]

No I don't think he dived, there was contact, he was moving at speed, he anticipated a block and took evasive action. As correctly stated by most of the panel on MotD.

The problematical area is, as MotD showed, when a player has to leap out of the way to avoid an incoming lunge. There is no contact so its not a foul? But if the lunge hadn't been there the player would have carried on in possession of the ball and so there is a lost advantage.
MotD on Thursday showed two such incidents where a player might have been construed as diving but had he not done so he may well have had his leg broken by a wild challenge.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

I don't think that slightly raising your arm and dropping it again is a wild challenge- the only way he could have broken his leg was by diving. Evasive action is not hurling yourself to the ground (at least he didn't roll around clutching at his leg...).

[pigeonhed.livejournal.com]

I wasn't implying that Elliott's challenge was wild. I think it was at worst slightly clumsy, he thought about the foul and tried to stop himself, resulting in the sort of collision that the referee had not considered a foul of any kind probably 20 or 30 times previous in the game including incidents where players went down more dramatically than Wrigh-Philips. My view is that neither player did anything wrong but the referee was wrong not for his mistake but for his extreme inconsistency.