I do enjoy the game of football (soccer) and am pleased to see the Australian A-League starting to get to a reasonably competitive level. John Aloisi's return is a great thing for the game here and the influx of Brazilian players makes the game even better to watch. The A-League needs to take one step in my opinion. It's one that FIFA don't have the balls to take at risk of offending the large powers in world football I'm guessing. The step involves the eradication of diving to time waste and procure free kicks and penalties.
It's the single biggest reason I also hate the game. The stakes in football are high. A goal is worth so much as is the game itself these days and players will do whatever they can in order to get a win. You can't blame them. Now of course one can recall the Australia v Italy game at the recent World Cup as an example but it happens in almost every game I watch. I watched bits and pieces of the Women's World Cup and was pleased to see none of it happening at all for some time until I watched Brazil play late in the tournament and the game nose dived for me once again. Quite disgraceful.
So as much as the A-League would like to stay in line with the FIFA rules ans regulations, they should go out on a limb here and introduce the only way of stamping this out of the game: video review. I'm not talking about mid-game video review which sees most traditional football fans jump out of there recliners and scream "sacrilege" (although I wouldn't mind seeing it, but that's another issue), I'm talking about post-game video review. Every game in the A-League is broadcast on Fox Sports and it would not take a lot to review each game and cite players who have taken a dive. If a player is found guilty of diving, a big penalty results. It has to be a big one. Perhaps 4 or 5 games as a base?
It would definitely stop most diving in the league here and would make big headlines in the world of football. Our little league down here doing something that no one else has the courage to do. We may still have a problem of diving in finals which can have a large bearing on the game but perhaps that's when mid-game reviews wouldn't go astray.
Michael
1 comment:
I agree something has to be done, but i disagree with your version, in Aust. sport we have regularly gone against the establishment when it comes to technology, i.e cricket 3rd umpire and the line adjudication in tennis with first the cyclopes and also the hawkeye, so why not make the call straight away, the captain could challenge the call, embrace technology and let the world come see our show piece!! Thanks for the write up.
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