Dele is a diver, but here is a very simple way for football to beat a cheat
Alli’s cheating is so persistent that he is now in the same position Suarez was. His physical actions are not trusted.
Dele Alli cheats. it is pointless sugar-coating this or advancing excuses. Since making his Premier league debut as a 77th-minute substitute at Manchester United on August 8, 2015, he has been booked for diving three times, the most of any Premier league player in that period.
And he is not learning, or changing, because two of those yellow cards have come this season. Alli was cautioned for diving against Manchester United on April 10, 2016, at Huddersfield on September 30, 2017 and at liverpool on Sunday.
He did not even bother to protest, merely gave Jon Moss, the referee, a friendly little pat of acknowledgement as he went past. Ah, you got me there, ref. No harm done, though, eh?
But there is harm done because Alli’s cheating is so persistent that he is now in the same position as luis Suarez in his final season in england. His physical actions are not trusted.
Without doubt, Suarez (below) got stiffed in 2013-14. There were many games in which he was fouled in the penalty area, and elsewhere, and play was waved on. He received little sympathy, though, because this was a problem of his creation. Suarez was a diver and the referees were wise to it, because television cameras reveal all. There were probably divers in the 1970s, too, but they weren’t regularly exposed. it is different now. Referees had seen enough replays to know they were being conned.
So it is with Alli. He had a certain penalty against Manchester United last week. Not given. even if he cleans up his act now, it will take several seasons for his reputation to recover. Bizarrely, he may as well keep diving, see if he can fool some of the people some of the time. A last-minute winner against Arsenal on Saturday might be worth a two-match ban from fixtures against Crystal Palace and Millwall or Rochdale in the FA Cup.
For that is where the system falls down. if Alli had dived, and won a penalty from which Tottenham scored on Sunday, the FA would have the means to deal with him. it is a two-match ban for such an offence, as Manuel lanzini of West Ham and everton’s Oumar Niasse found. Yet a persistent offender, the biggest cheat of recent times, as Alli has proven to be, gets away with a nod and a wink. This has to stop. There are bigger crimes in football than diving, such as kicking good players off the park. Alli is fouled, on average, roughly every 32 minutes this season, 66 times in 2,108 minutes played. He is the second most fouled player in the league, after Watford’s Richarlison. indeed, it was an infringement on the Brazilian forward that saw Tiemoue Bakayoko sent off during Chelsea’s trip to Vicarage Road last night.
Yet football has plenty of additional rules to deal with violent conduct. Cumulative yellow card totals resulting in bans, suspensions related to red cards, increased suspensions for repeat offenders. The authorities could do more, yes, but it is not as if they do nothing.
Yet diving, an offence that infuriates players, managers and supporters, has no more consequence than time-wasting or dissent.
Alli’s third booking for straight-up cheating in less than two years — and if he’s been caught three times, it’s fair to speculate he’s got away with a few, too, like speeding drivers — sits there, unexamined. That is not right. Diving cautions should be totted up. Two strikes and you’re out. As his third offence, what Alli did at Anfield should be worth a three-game ban. if he does it again, he’s out for four. eventually, even the most committed cheats will get the message.
First offence is a written warning. That’s only fair. Yes, everyone knows diving is wrong but there are cultural issues. Suarez, in his autobiography, admits diving. He justifies it by saying that, in Uruguay, anything a player can do to give advantage to his team is acceptable, whether inside or outside the rules. He still has a trophy given to him by fans after the 2010 World Cup, of a goalkeeper making a save.
To the rest of the world, Suarez punched the ball off the line in the final minutes of extra time and, in doing so, denied the African continent its first World Cup semi-finalists, Ghana.
A penalty was awarded which Asamoah Gyan missed, and Uruguay progressed via a shootout. Suarez was sent off, but his team went through.
‘The hand of God now belongs to me,’ he said. ‘i made the save of the tournament.’ The wider world was appalled. The makeshift trophy that Suarez treasures has one word on its base: Gracias.
Of course, the argument runs that if, say, an englishman dived to win the World Cup he would be lauded, but that isn’t true. A frequent complaint from Premier league fans is that english divers are given an easier ride than their foreign counterparts — although Alli and Ashley Young, among others, would dispute this.
Certainly, the thought of Alli diving for england in Russia does not appeal even if, with referees coming from Uzbekistan and el Salvador at the last World Cup, there is a chance his reputation might not have preceded him.
Back to Suarez, however, and while it is disingenuous of him to behave as if Uruguayans are incapable of telling right from wrong, let’s accept that British football is more affronted by diving than many other nations.
A recent arrival might not comprehend this. There are stories of tumbling new players being taken aside by Chelsea’s minority english contingent to be told, ‘We don’t do that here’. So a warning for the first dive seems reasonable. it puts the player on notice. Written warning and a one-game ban, suspended. There would be no expiry of this sentence. it would remain throughout a player’s career. Then, if there was a second event, action could begin.
The second caution for diving — so Alli against Huddersfield this season — would bring a twogame punishment. The first, suspended, ban would be activated — and another game added for the second offence. A third booking for diving, Alli against liverpool on Sunday, would receive a three-game ban. look, we’ve all done numbers at primary school. We can see how the sequence progresses.
Would Alli still have risked a three-match suspension to try to cheat Moss at Anfield? Only if his diving is instinctive. And, if it is, we need to find a way to make that stop. Treating him like a little kid caught with his fingers in the cookie jar isn’t working.
There is nothing charming about a cheat, even a young, gifted, British one.