World Cup diving makes wrong kind of splash

And the Greg Louganis Award for diving goes to... I like the idea of showing yellow cards for diving in soccer, but it looks as if FIFA is afraid to make that a hard and fast rule because I didn’t see a single one handed out at this year’s World Cup tournament in Brazil.

This is the best World Cup tourney I’ve ever witnessed and while there will always be diving until FIFA gets its head out of the sand, it has not spoiled the tournament to this point.

Oddly enough, at the start of this year, FIFA president Sepp Blatter urged referees to launch a global crackdown on the cheaters and even suggested time-penalties to stop players who fake injury from immediately returning to the game. What happened to that idea? Showing yellow cards for diving early in the tournament may have had a positive effect the rest of the way. We’ll never know.

Clearly, players are using the dive as a strategy and have been for some time. They’ll accept the free kick and ignore the embarrassment. Winning is what counts and it doesn’t matter how that’s accomplished.

It certainly takes away from the game. It’s a flaw in an otherwise wonderful game, but all sports have at least one flaw.

My guess is the decision to dive is learned early. Referees usually don’t blow the whistle unless you fall, so from a young age, players learn to fall when fouled.

Some professional players have become expert at it. They dive and they often add a little writhing as an embellishment. Some refs seem to be impressed by writhing, especially when its embellished by a player rolling over two or three times. Holding your head when you’ve been accidentally kicked in the ankle is also impressive apparently.

Granted, it takes guts to yellowcard a diver and it’s a lot easier to make the call after you’ve seen the replay a dozen times in super slow motion.

Having said that, I’m proud to say I’ve covered local soccer for 40 years and, with a few exceptions, Newfoundlanders don’t dive.

It’s considered a cowardly act here and your teammates are more often likely to tell you to knock it off than the opposition or officials.

Back in the day, I thought the reason our players didn’t dive was because they were weary of falling on the ground on our rock-hard surfaces. But I haven’t noticed any increase in diving locally even with the new artificial surfaces.

Hopefully, we can keep the integrity in our game. Five things that lasted longer than Eugenie Bouchard’s Wimbledon final: 1. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida 2. Peace in the Middle East 3. The time it takes to open airplane peanuts 4. A Rick Mercer rant 5. A Kardashian wedding Dee Murphy and I have found something we can agree on, which may be the final sign of the Apocalypse.

You’ve probably seen the opening to the World Cup soccer games showing an idyllic cartoon setting with smiling youngsters playing games, an image that looks right out of the animated movie Ri, but one that belies the truth behind Brazil’s demonstrations.

I’m sure Dee and I are not the first ones to notice the irony.

The fact is many thousands of poor children and adults as well as other groups have been demonstrating against the soccer tournament in their soccer-mad country because there are much bigger priorities.

Estimates on the numbers of Brazilian street children vary from 200,000 to eight million.

The World Cup has cost the country an estimated $14 billion, which obviously could have been better spent on their people who desperately need it. Of course, the tournament generated millions of dollars for the country, but do you suppose any of that money will trickle down to the people who need it the most?

The face of Brazil we’re shown to kick off the World Cup coverage is a mask.

The immorality of the real situation is rather obvious.

Some people in Brazil will make money off of the World Cup, but it won’t be those existing in the favelas.

Rio de Janeiro is playing host to the 2016 Olympics which, all things considered, is rather obscene.

But, really, what do you expect when you; re dealing with either FIFA or the IOC? They’re both worse than the NCAA, which is really saying something.