When was it exactly that football in the UK became a game played predominantly by overgrown fairies?
It’s clearly been a very gradual thing, as I can’t remember everything changing to the way it is these days in the space of say one season. But surely no-one can deny that football in the UK today is generally played by an entirely different breed of character to those who were doing the same 20-30 years ago?
What do I mean by ‘overgrown fairies’? Well, I’m frankly talking about men who despite being physically much stronger and fitter than your average man in the street, seem intent on behaving like drama queens on the field of play after even the slightest of touches by an opponent. I’ve lost count now of the number of times I’ve been left raging by the antics of some of these guys, whose first priority it seems is getting opponents into trouble with the referee rather than simply trying to win football matches.
It really is pathetic. It used to be the case that players would do everything they could to avoid letting on that they’d been hurt by a tackle, but now it’s completely the opposite and most of these guys are kidding on that they’ve been hurt when there’s no way that they could have been.
In the era I’m talking about above (20-30 years ago) there were always divers and those who were well-drilled in the various underhand arts of the game, but they were generally in the minority. Remember guys like Frank McGarvey or Ally McCoist? They found it extremely difficult keeping their feet when they got anywhere near the penalty area, but to be fair to them they would have drawn the line at rolling around the ground 10 times until they saw a red card coming out for a player who hadn’t touched them. Well, McCoist certainly would have – not completely sure about McGarvey! But as I said, players who did this sort of thing were certainly not in the majority in Britain – far from it in fact.
So who is to blame for this behaviour shift? Is it the influx of foreign players to this country? It certainly could be. We are actually one of the very few countries in Europe who have a real problem with cheating, probably because most of us were brought up on generations of hardmen and football being truly a contact sport. But at the same time as our game was like that back then, many European leagues like those in Spain or Italy were already rife with the ‘simulation’ that we see in our domestic leagues today . So it could well be that the gradual introduction of more and more players brought up on a culture that doesn’t berate this sort of behaviour has seen this shift developing over the years.
But if the foreign influence is a factor, I also think that the changing rules of the game would have to be another. FIFA seem to be doing their best to play right into the hands of the cheats and those who would prefer football to be a non-contact sport. Just look at some of the ridiculous red card decisions that we’re seeing on an almost weekly basis for examples of this.
The rule about a player ‘raising his hands’ has always been a big pet-hate of mine. So what if a player reacts to a tackle he didn’t appreciate with a little bit of argy-bargy? In many cases they have every right to be angry, so where is the justice in the real perpetrator getting away with their fouling while the retaliator gets sent off for literally pushing an opponent in the chest, sometimes with enough force to barely knock over a daisy?!
It’s not right, and neither is the situation whereby this ‘raising the hands’ thing is open to the interpretation of the match officials – this just gives them the opportunity to create more controversy than there otherwise would be, and generally ends up with the smaller clubs being given more of a sense of injustice when their players are treated less leniently than those of the bigger clubs. For goodness sake, if you’re going to make it a rule then make it black and white so that there can be no doubt!
The other rule that gets on my goat is this widespread belief that a penalty should be awarded if there is ‘contact in the penalty area’. Perhaps I’m missing something here but…..shouldn’t a penalty be awarded only if a foul has been committed?! It is actually possible for a player to be fouled without contact as well, so what would FIFA say about that? What a nonsense – ‘contact’ itself should never give a player a right to dive in the penalty area and the rules should be there to protect defenders more on this. Any sign of a player attempting to win a penalty by inventing their own foul should be punished with a straight red card until these sort of tendencies subside – even if this results in innocent offenders being sent off from time to time, I believe this is what needs to happen to sort this out. FIFA also need to change the laws to allow for more contact to be permitted, otherwise we’ll end up with a sport like Netball!
Will any of this actually get changed at any point in the foreseeable future? Probably not, as the sort of players I’m berating here have generally helped to make football into the big business that it is on these shores. But I can’t help thinking that if some of those behaviours changed, some of the worst offenders would become infinitely better and more productive footballers as a result. Someone like Didier Drogba of Chelsea for example, would be a far more valuable player if he concentrated on using his great physical presence to score and create goals instead of throwing himself to the ground half the time.
Ah well, I suppose you can afford to lose some public self respect if you earn over £100K a week……………!
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By the current laws of the game, the only allowable “contact” left is shoulder-to-shoulder. If they remove that, then we will have netball / basketball. You make a lot of valid points here MrH – not least the desire of some players to get others sent off. However, I don’t think Eduardo wanted Martin Taylor sent off on Saturday for example – and the tackle itself didn’t warrant a straight red – but because of the obvious extent of the injury this clearly influenced the referee’s decision. Because of genuine & horrific incidents like these, I fear this will overshadow everything & the ‘problem’ of football becoming less and less of a contact sport will get worse, not better. At least for those of us who love the beautiful game as it was always meant to be played.
Incidents like the Eduardos one are the exception though aren’t they? Shocking injury but as you say, not really the worst tackle you’ve ever seen. This sort of thing would happen from time to time regardless of the rules.
I was watching an episode of Question Of Sport the other night and Laurence (I can’t spell his second name) of English Rugby Union fame said that he and his mates in rugby called the Premiership:
“The Andrex Premier League” because it is so soft. I actually laughed and agreed. I also feel the Scottish League is the same… Here comes the so called “paranoid” statement. If you so much as goes near an old firm player the ref gives a freekick and if you look ar Miko the wrong way he falls down. So in my opinion it’s more of a boys game really.
Incidents like the Eduardo one are the exception yes, but my point is that its these exceptions that govern the rule changes… because they overshadow everything else. My Dad used to tell me that it was once perfectly legal to barge a goalkeeper holding the ball into his own net & claim a goal, but those rules were changed because one or two goalkeepers died of a broken neck through tackles. Nowadays, you can’t even breathe near a goalkeeper without the referee blowing his whistle. The fact that the Eduardo tackle wasn’t malicious or particularly ugly is beside the point – it just gives those who want football to be completely non-contact more moral ammunition to force yet more softening up of the game.
This could all depend on your definition of a “Man”! We’re all metrosexuals these days apparently!
Let us not forget that various government ministers have tried to ban heading of the football to prevent brain damage. I even remember the suggestion of football helmets… This obviously would lead down the road of shoulder pads and back plates and then finally the a rule about only being allowed 4 chances to move the ball 10 yards.
i think the game needed to change from the crazy tackles that we saw 30 yrs ago from wot ive seen on clips from tv cos it was b4 my time but think we have went far past the line we need 2 find a happy medium were strong but fair tackles are allowed cant stand watchin games now when players fall 2 the knees just for a arm on the shoulder i think 1 thing that needs to change is that fans need 2 stand up to there own players for diving for example if a player was to dive n wim a penalty at old trafford he wood b booed the whole game but ronaldo can do the same thing i think and b a hero they need 2 let him know that its not acceptable i undersand its hard to do this if ronaldo would win a penalty n score but until something like this happens players will always know they can get away with it i dont think football used to be called a man game just for the hard tackles but because integrity and the fact that players wood rather loose with dignity than to win by cheatin
Just about got my breath back there! I agree there needs to be a happy medium and that perhaps barging goalkeepers into the net, no matter how funny it looks on the old film, was probably a bit over the score. What you’ve been told SJ is probably true – that would certainly explain why ‘keepers are so ridiculously over-protected wouldn’t it?
I agree totally about the “raising the hands” thing, Mr. H – a total over-reaction by FIFA/UEFA. The other change that seems to be happening currently is the interpretation of penalty box fouls. Up until a couple of years ago, a ref either decided it was a penalty, or else he waved “play on”. Today, if he decides its not a penalty, there’s a strong chance that the ref will actually give a foul to the defending team and book the attacker for “simulation” (what an awful word that is). And the interpretaion of “simulation” has grown to ridiculous levels. True, I can understand FIFA’s position in trying to “persuade” players not to go down without good reason. But Miko’s comments in the SoS interview at the weekend were both logical and worrying. He basically took the view that it’s worth trying to con the ref because you’ll either get the penalty or else you’ll get booked – he didn’t view a booking as a much of a punishment. Logical… but certainly not good for the moral fibre of the game. And I’ll bet Messrs Moloney, Novo, McGeady etc take exactly the same view – with the added bonus for them that the risk of a booking is greatly reduced due to the colour of jersey they wear.
Just on that point about penalties without contact Mr.H.
I completely agree but I am not sure if i am thinking along the same lines. Do you mean penalties should always be given even for non contact things such as shirt pulling or handballs? If so, well.. i agree with that anyway but , what i was thinking of, is hard to explain in words. Ill try my best. If a player goes into the box and there isn’t really any contact from another player, say a goalkeeper runs out and the player has to hurdle the keeper but then loses gravity or whatever and falls, the same with hurdling a challenge from a defender. Would you also count those as fouls without contact. I would. Of course it does depend on the circumstances but i do feel there are times when an obvious obstruction has taken place and there might not necessarily be any contact. LOL its difficult to explain in a comment box but you might catch my drift a bit?
Oh and also agree with the point on raising the hands. It is ridiculous what some players get sent off for these days. Jermie Alialidre against Liverpool, being a recent example. Shocking by the ref.
Personally I think that a foul is a foul is a foul. If we’re talking about whether this or that warrants a penalty, the criteria is simple. If it would be a free kick anywhere else on the field, it should be a penalty kick if the same offence takes place inside the box. Whether it’s handball, shirt-pulling or whatever. Of course, that will never happen, but it’s just my view.
plus we used to see indirect free kicks in the box, never see that anymore, the last one i saw was league cup semi against motherwell when maloney was practically on the line
A passback is an indirect free-kick in the box, hoopymo. 🙂
Yes RK I think that if a player has to hurdle a waist-high challenge and loses control of the ball as a result then it should be a foul, no matter where it is on the field. As for indirect free-kicks in the box, that’s an interesting one. It used to be the case (correct me if I’m wrong) that this would be awarded when obstruction occurred in the penalty area, but these days even obstruction seems to result in penalties at times. As with everything though, it’s all a bit inconsistent.
“if a player has to hurdle a waist-high challenge and loses control of the ball as a result then it should be a foul” Well put!
..yeah…on reflection the sentence should have ended “he should be a professional hurdler”!