IT’S TIME TO TAKE DOWN THE DIVERS
How did Anthony Martial feel yesterday? Disappointed? Of course. Manchester United had lost another semi- final.
Hurt? Inevitably. The defeat had come against their rivals from across town.
Ashamed? Embarrassed? Sheepish, after his larcenous attempt to win a penalty by deception? Probably none of the above. It will barely even have registered. He will have heard a few choice words from Ruben Dias who, along with Fernandinho, was an intended stooge for his act.
He may have seen his name taken in vain had he ventured onto social media afterwards.
But he will probably have filed it away as light collateral damage from a justifiable attempt to help the team’s cause. Diving is still viewed by players as an acceptable way to win – or in this case rescue – a game.
It isn’t. It is a pus- filled spot on the face of football.
The fact that it was a United player involved in the week that Jurgen Klopp made a point of underlining how many penalties Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side are awarded gave the incident an added piquancy.
Since Solskjaer took charge at Old Trafford in December 2018, United have been given 27 penalties in the Premier League, which is more than any other club.
Is this the true explanation for the disparity in numbers? That United are serial divers?
In the Solskjaer era, the statistics show United are the worst offenders when it comes to diving in the Premier League. They have received five yellows for simulation in two years, which puts them top of the table of shame. But this isn’t a one- club problem. Arsenal are hot on United’s tail with four and Chelsea, Spurs and Wolves have three over the same period.
Fans will often turn a blind eye when their own side is involved but when they have no skin in the game these sham theatrics grate. If viewers wanted to watch diving they would tune in to Tom Daley.
There have been just two yellow cards awarded for diving this season but, far from concluding the problem has gone away, this highlights the degree to which football has taken its eye off the ball. Diving remains a loathsome blight on the game.
The culture within football is insufficiently robust against what is common- or- garden cheating. You hear it in the language of ex- pros, employed as analysts, who commend a player for “going down well” after the sort of contact that would fail to blow b away dandelion seeds.
In the VAR era, the deception d has evolved to a point where the rogues look for a stray leg to brush against in the penalty area before crumpling to the ground.
Martial did not even bother with that. He played the odds knowing his attempted crime would likely carry no punishment. And it didn’t.
There was no yellow card from referee Martin Atkinson; he simply waved play on. There will be no retrospective action from the FA either under its ‘ unsporting behaviour’ law.
The FA can only charge a player over an incident in which a referee has been successfully deceived and an advantage gained. In other words, Martial would have needed to be a better actor to face action. Being a village hall extra spared him.
That blockage to justice needs to be removed.
The Stockley Park VAR operatives should make themselves useful by combing through the match footage each week for examples and passing them on for disciplinary action. Instant bans would soon make the miscreants think twice.
Until there is a strong enough deterrent in place, diving will continue to deface football. The game needs to come down hard on the con men.