Arsenal Cheats - Just Like The Rest Of Us!

Yep Eduardo took a dive and won Arsenal a crucial penalty, but until FIFA, UEFA the FA or whoever take decisive action, this isn't going to stop. Yes Eduardo is a cheat but so is Jimenez - he clearly threw himself to the ground in the box against Spurs - and Owen - remember roaring approval as he gave the Argies a taste of their own medicine?

Pundits say this came into our game with the foreigners but they have very short memories obviously. I offer you Francis Lee and Alan Clarke as England strikers well versed in the black arts of diving in the box as long ago as the early 1970s. Lee flew through the air like the proverbial bomb whilst Clarke favoured the "shot in the small of the back by a sniper" technique, agony twisting his features as his trailing leg kissed the flesh of an opposing defender and he crumpled to the ground in three staged stylish movements (the older amongst you will see a mind's eye picture as you read this).

It happened much less often in those days of course - not because the players were doing it less often perhaps but more likely because there weren't TV cameras at every ground to pick it up and replay it over and over again in slow motion when a player took a tumble. Summerbee was a master at it if I remember rightly. Giles got fantastic elevation at the slightest hint of a challenge and with Lorimer in the team, he sometimes dived out of the box to set up a free kick from just outside the area! You can probably identify when this came into the game - it probably coincided with players disputing decisions with the referees - and that did not start with Roy Keane at Manchester United!

The solutions are simple of course. Cricket and tennis are using technology to assist officials and this has added to the drama. The tension as a decision goes to the third umpire is incredible and the roar or groan that accompanies the decision is like another wicket being taken. Holding up the game? So what, add it on at the end of the match for pity's sake.

Then there is the power to overturn results. If Celtic were now going into the next round, would Arsene maintain his "I could not see it personally" approach? Eduardo would never kick a ball for Arsenal again in those circumstances! Too harsh on the rest of the team? Why, the whole team benefit from the cheating. Perhaps then, the captain might ask the player concerned, "Are you sure about that one, we don't want to be eliminated for cheating."

And of course a cheat can be banned as Rugby Union has just proved. Biting on a blood capsule is pretty low but is it any worse than diving to win a penalty or to get an opponent sent off? If Eduardo now faced a 3 month ban, without wages, he would think twice before doing it again wouldn't he?

So why are the authorities sitting on their hands? Why are the rules a cheat's charter? I'm not condemning Eduardo or Arsenal here, that would be hypocritical. Every player that takes a dive does so because the authorities accept it.