Diving in Football - a solution

[Ulf Ottosson 0]

Sorry if this is a bit off topic but talking Norwich City isn''t much fun at the moment.

With constant talk of how diving ruins football I propose a change in the rules which states that any player fouled would then have to take the resulting free kick or penalty. Thereby potentially reducing the advantage gained from A dive. How many games are decided by dubious set pieces which are then converted or supplied by the teams set piece expert?

You may ask this would''nt stop diving, well it won''t but it''s something which will never be stopped but by implementing this you would be reducing the rewards for instance would Gary Neville take a dive if he knew he then had to take the resulting penalty, also constant divers could be spotted more easily and hopefully this would lead to more players being "honest" and staying on there feet instead of looking for fouls.. 

What do you think?

[Old Boy 0]

Interesting idea - logical, and easy to implement.

[chicken 0]

Its actually a very bad idea. It takes away any advantage to the attacking side from free kicks etc.

What you are talking about is free-kicks that are a result of diving. Well you cant get free kicks as a result of diving, if a dive is committed then there is no foul and the diver is punnished not the other player.

However if you enforced a rule that suggested that the player that is fouled must take the resulting free kick you could end up with huge problems. For example if a player has to leave the field of play for treatment.

The second problem is that you are punnishing everyone not just those that dive, and although you may be right it may dissuade some players from diving it may encourage others like Beckham who are good at set pieces. Like I said it takes any advantage away from set pieces which are supposed to be a punnishment for the perpitrating team and a consolation to the victims team.

The only way to really deter diving would be to introduce the video camara system for penalties and perhaps some fouls on the edge of the box along with red card incidents.

With someone monitering the game throughout they can pick up the dives and maybe fine players that have done so after the match.

[Brum Uni Canary 0]

Maybe....but most of the divers are attacking-minded players anyway! Take Man U for example - key antagonists for this topic are Rooney, Ronaldo and van Nistelrooy...we know that these three players can all comfortably take penalties, and both Rooney and Ronaldo have got fairly accurate free kicks.
I do see your point about making the fouled player take the free kick - this should be implemented in a number of sports to make it more exciting and maybe lower the scores. It takes out the element of having specialists to do particular moves...who knows what would happen if Andy Johnson and Ruud van Nistelrooy couldn''t take penalties - they would be just 2 other strikers with mediocre goal tallies.

In hockey, the Pakistanis have a player at right back who isn''t that special but is their highest ever goalscorer. Why? Because he can put a ball into the net consistently from a penalty corner at 100mph!
Although this sort of thing can be the deciding factor in any sport, it makes the game predictable if someone is so good at something that we know they are going to score.

[Peter 0]

Lets have new category of caution for diving or simulation, you would need the equivalent of 3 yellows to be sent off if one offence is for diving.  If player receives two yellows for diving and replays post match reveal both were actual dives this would become sending off and suspension.  If booking for dive was in fact a foul rescind yellow after the game.

I advocate booking each apparent dive as it happens, this would stop it at a stroke, referee cannot always be certain player has dived, 3 times in match is unlikely to result in a sending off for diving, review diving offences after each game.

Thank you for reading hope you get my drift.

 

 

 

[Cantley 0]

[quote]Sorry if this is a bit off topic but talking Norwich City isn''t much fun at the moment. With constant talk of how diving ruins football I propose a change in the rules which states that any player fo...[/quote]

But...if it gets a free kick, then logically it wasn''t a dive! DUH!!

[Saint Canary 0]

I feel this is a bad idea.  Teams who have players that don''t dive will be unfairly affected.  Also to implemement a rule to make the "fouled" player take the kick incase they dived makes no sense, this suggests that the we are assuming that everyone could be diving and if you are diving, then there is no foul to give anyway.  Pointless

[BedsCanary 0]

What would happen if the player fouled gets injured and taken off?

[Old Boy 0]

It IS a good idea, because it reduces the temptation to dive. It doesn''t take away the advantage of a free-kick, it just reduces the benefit a little. It won''t make a massive difference, but it would help a bit. I would add that if the fouler was shown a card (red or yellow) as a result of the foul, then any player could take the kick. The problem is that a dive is not easy to spot, and if you watch MOTD or Sky on any Saturday you''ll see many instances of dubious free-kicks. Ideally, all dives in the area should get a straight red, but realistically, that would be too controversial to implement.

As to who would take it if the fouled player were injured and substituted, then it should be any other player from that team. That''s because, if the fouled player had been injured so badly it must have been a genuine foul.

[AJ 1,238]

there is no way...

green is up for a corner in the dying seconds of our last game, we must win to stay up..... its 2-2, ball come in headed away, green controls and runs towards box.......... gets brought down

Green to take a penalty to save our premiership life????? err... no......

Although i must be honest and say i never have seen take a penalty......

[Ulf Ottosson 0]

I agree with some of the posts here in relation to the problems if the player was carried off injured and could not continue but this doesn''t happen often. Equally some players who get fouled are good at set pieces anyway and also some are bad!! The rule exists I think in basketball and shaq o''neil i think! gets fouled all the time but as a very average record at the free shots

However these days I think that free kicks and corners give such a massive advantage that reducing this would only be a good thing. Give away a free kick on the edge of the area then it is as good as giving away a pen

I think this may reduce the temptation to dive and stop annoying fouls, I have noticed in the premiership someone pulls a shirt you fall over, goalie comes out you let him take you out, someone sticks out a foot you fall over it, you get a nudge you fall over etc... It may also speed the game up with set pieces being taken more quickly. Some things which are considered fouls just aren''t in my opnion  

I think a less radical version would be to just have it for penalties

[Ken Aries 0]

[quote]there is no way... green is up for a corner in the dying seconds of our last game, we must win to stay up..... its 2-2, ball come in headed away, green controls and runs towards box.......... gets br...[/quote]

There''s one thing, Green can''t possibly be worse at taking penalties than he is at saving them, can he? Am I right in saying that his penalty saving record is 100% failure?

[Ruddy Good 0]

Agreed with AJ and most people on here. It WOULD stop the temptation to dive for defenders and some midfielders who aren''t good at set-pieces. But say Van Nistelrooy or Henry dive in the box and win the penalty. Thye aren''t going to care if they have to take it as they usually do take the penaltys for their team. So for any good finisher or set-piece taker this isnt going to work.

Going back to AJ''''s point i think Green would be a natural penalty taker, although i would prefer Deano to take our penaltys!!??

[The Great Drinkell 50]

[quote]there is no way... green is up for a corner in the dying seconds of our last game, we must win to stay up..... its 2-2, ball come in headed away, green controls and runs towards box.......... gets br...[/quote]

Goalkeepers taking penalties is actually a good practice, as they are likely to practice kicking a still ball more than most otehr players. - Only problem is if they don''t score then they need to get back pretty quick.

Simple solution if a player is proven to have dived to gain an advantage (post match) then give him a retrospective yellow card. Then impose the current suspension rules. -Except keep these cards valid for length of the season. This would put the emphasis on the clubs and management to prevent losing there "influential Players" during the season. It would also single out the induvidual.

[AJ 1,238]

[quote]There''s one thing, Green can''t possibly be worse at taking penalties than he is at saving them, can he? Am I right in saying that his penalty saving record is 100% failure?[/quote]

wrong.... he saved keowns penalty in his arsenal tribute