August 27, 2009

Cheats in sport

It’s amazing how cynical and blinkered old pros are when it comes to cheating. The Eduardo dive has caused a veritable storm in a Champions League Cup, never mind a teacup. It was a dull game, going nowhere. Arsenal missed a few easy chances then got what the commentator and pundit both called a ‘cheap’ penalty. What they meant was a blatant dive – which seems so acceptable that the manager was utterly outraged that UEFA thought it was time to make a stand and punish the diver.

I must admit I am entirely with UEFA on this one. If players blatantly cheat to confuse the referee – then they ought to be punished – especially if the cheating has an obvious effect on the game.

The trouble is – where do you draw the line? In football, cheating is both rife and endemic. It’s just hat some forms of cheating, pushing, shoving and holding for example are considered part of the game. Whereas diving or spitting seems to get professional footballers all hot and bothered.

There was a particularly unusual and blatant bit of cheating in a Crystal Palace game the other week. Place got a goal – but the referee and linesman missed the ball rocketing into the net and bouncing back out from the stanchion. Well it did happen a bit fast. Most if not all the opposition knew the ball had gone in – but they were all too happy to pretend it didn’t. Perhaps the entire team ought to be suspended for two games.

However, cheating in football was all put into perspective by the stream of revelations from Bloodgate. Apparently those nice rugger chaps think nothing about dipping into their socks for a sachet of fake blood if it helps bring someone else on to the field. I particularly liked the fact that the coach who orchestrated this gross distortion of sport was an ex-policeman. But then he was a bit of a thug when he played.

All in all a sorry week for sport. And I still haven’t recovered from the Ashes hype when it was conveniently forgotten just how much blatant cheating England stooped to in avoiding defeat in the first test. After that I lost interest – and I suspect I am not the only one.

Cheats in sport

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