We take an anecdotal ride into one of football’s murkiest matters today: diving and fair play. Does it exist at all, or is it part hope part idealism?
Marcus Rashford can do no wrong. He has probably been the only ray of sunshine in the post-apocalyptic landscape that Man United fans skulk in. He can do it all – dribble like Giggs, pass the odd raking cross-field Scholesesque ball, strike a free-kick like Beckham, wind up the annoying opponent like Gary ‘Red Nev’ Neville. And as if all this was not enough, he seems to have learnt how to dive like Ronaldo too.
When young Marcus took that opportune tumble against Swansea, United fans were no doubt relieved. Swansea were clearly the better side and deserved to take back all three points from Old Trafford. Yet, Rashford’s impression of a flying fish did the trick for United and it was left to Swansea’s Icelandic Messi (that’s Sigurdsson – for people who don’t give a shit about Swansea) to come up with the goods once again.
Robbie Savage came up with an innovative thought by distinguishing between ‘cheating’ and ‘professionalism’. According to Mr. Savage, going down without any contact is ‘cheating’ – so not British, not quite the straight bat and so on and so forth. Going down after being touched, albeit while you were on your way down, is ‘professionalism’ – permitted in the most British of bulldogs, thank you very much. By this bizarre logic, when Lucas Leiva threw himself to the ground against Watford without being touched, he was cheating. When young Marcus did it, he initiated contact by almost falling onto Fabianski’s gloves – that’s kosher. Ignoring the mildly xenophobic angle to Mr. Savage’s verdict, it would be worth our collective whiles to look at some other aspects of this dubious practice of ‘conning the ref’.