Do you believe them?

Celtic were leading 2-1 in added time at Ross County this afternoon when Alex Schalk fell to the floor in dramatic fashion and the referee awarded a penalty which enabled the home side get a point in their fight to avoid relegation. The fall out from the incident saw Celtic captain Scott Brown given a straight red card for a bad foul on Schalk, presumably stemming from the fact that he knew what the television replays confirmed - Schalk had clearly dived.

In his interview after the match Ross County manager Jim McIntyre was honest enough to say his player had dived and while saying that his team had suffered from a series of poor penalty this season, refused to condone what Schalk had done.

I don't know enough about McIntyre to say for sure that he was lying when he implied that he didn't like to see his players diving, but I'm pretty sure that the large majority of managers both north and south of the border do very little to stop their players doing so.

Schalk is Dutch and so the old line that diving only started appearing in this country with the influx of foreign players in the 90s on these shores will no doubt be trotted out again. However, although I can't say for sure there were divers about in the sixties when I started watching the game, there definitely were in the early 70s (e.g. Francis Lee) and this at a time when there was barely a non British player appearing in this country.

If a side needed a win on the last day of the season to stay up and they were drawing in the last minute, a player who didn't go down in the penalty area because he knew he hadn't been fouled, but instead stayed on his feet and tried to score would be read the riot act by most managers if he failed to do so - I'm 99.9% sure of that and I think many fans would agree with me.

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Originally Posted by the other bob wilson

Celtic were leading 2-1 in added time at Ross County this afternoon when Alex Schalk fell to the floor in dramatic fashion and the referee awarded a penalty which enabled the home side get a point in their fight to avoid relegation. The fall out from the incident saw Celtic captain Scott Brown given a straight red card for a bad foul on Schalk, presumably stemming from the fact that he knew what the television replays confirmed - Schalk had clearly dived.

In his interview after the match Ross County manager Jim McIntyre was honest enough to say his player had dived and while saying that his team had suffered from a series of poor penalty this season, refused to condone what Schalk had done.

I don't know enough about McIntyre to say for sure that he was lying when he implied that he didn't like to see his players diving, but I'm pretty sure that the large majority of managers both north and south of the border do very little to stop their players doing so.

Schalk is Dutch and so the old line that diving only started appearing in this country with the influx of foreign players in the 90s on these shores will no doubt be trotted out again. However, although I can't say for sure there were divers about in the sixties when I started watching the game, there definitely were in the early 70s (e.g. Francis Lee) and this at a time when there was barely a non British player appearing in this country.

If a side needed a win on the last day of the season to stay up and they were drawing in the last minute, a player who didn't go down in the penalty area because he knew he hadn't been fouled, but instead stayed on his feet and tried to score would be read the riot act by most managers if he failed to do so - I'm 99.9% sure of that and I think many fans would agree with me.

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I would have thought most managers , fans , players would not want the player to go down if he hadnt been fouled. Its likely the dive would be spottted and a possible goal scoring chance gone. I dont think your right with this one. i dont think ive ever heard someone blaming a player for not diving (cheating). Id go mad if one of our players didnt attempt a chance and instead dived.

However we often see a players chance made more difficult when there has been a foul but a player can still stay on his feet. Maybe in this case theres the argument he should have gone down. What should happen is the refs should blow if the goal isnt scored. But they never do.

Retrospective action should be taken against anyone caught diving - or cheating to give it it's correct name.

A few five game bans handed out by the authorities would at least send a clear message to clubs that blatant diving will not be tolerated.

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Originally Posted by Claude Blue

Retrospective action should be taken against anyone caught diving - or cheating to give it it's correct name.

A few five game bans handed out by the authorities would at least send a clear message to clubs that blatant diving will not be tolerated.

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If its a blatant obvious dive take away the points. Its cheating.

In a perfect world I am pretty sure that most people would condem diving.
However, football is far from perfect and most people would not care a jot if a dive saved the team from a relegation etc.
In fact I would reckon that most would justify it by revisiting all those dodgy decisions and rely on the mantra about these things cancelling themselves out over a season.
Most football followers are blind to the wrongs regarding their own team but have absolute clarity when it comes to identifying negative attributes regarding the opposition.

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Originally Posted by Majorblue

In a perfect world I am pretty sure that most people would condem diving.
However, football is far from perfect and most people would not care a jot if a dive saved the team from a relegation etc.
In fact I would reckon that most would justify it by revisiting all those dodgy decisions and rely on the mantra about these things cancelling themselves out over a season.
Most football followers are blind to the wrongs regarding their own team but have absolute clarity when it comes to identifying negative attributes regarding the opposition.

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Yeah I agree with this. I dont think fans would blame a player for not diving though.

Although on a slightly different track, specifically where there is minimal contact rather than none, plenty of pundits seem happy to question players who don't go down in order to try and win the penalty. I think this is almost as bad as diving for teaching children the wrong side of football and refs should be given far, far greater support if they play the advantage but if the attack is sufficiently impeded then bring it back for a penalty.

If it was a clear dive then I would be embarrassed to stay up on that moment. I am sure I would start to count the contentious instances that went against over the season and argue that it's much worse to win a title on a dive (your greater talent and greater wealth should mean you are less likely to cheat) but the embarrassment would still be there.

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Originally Posted by surge

I think this is almost as bad as diving for teaching children the wrong side of football and refs should be given far, far greater support if they play the advantage but if the attack is sufficiently impeded then bring it back for a penalty. .

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Perhaps refs need to be taught a greater understanding about what the attacking side would benefit from as well. Case and point, Costa gets kicked but carries on and makes a pass so ref waves play on. There is no striker and a wall of Man United players ready to defend for Hazzard to try and pass to but despite if fizzling out quickly the ref does not pull it back. It is clear that here Costa has tried to play football but Chelsea are at a disadvantage despite the ref playing advantage to them.

I see the diver in the incident has been banned for two games by the SFA.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39646717

Frannie Lee took diving to an art form. He used tangle his own legs and fall in a way that always fooled the ref.

It's all a bit Tom Daly for me , fed up of this bring splashed all over the media

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Originally Posted by Claude Blue

Retrospective action should be taken against anyone caught diving - or cheating to give it it's correct name.

A few five game bans handed out by the authorities would at least send a clear message to clubs that blatant diving will not be tolerated.

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That would extinguish it and make it less appealing to fans if they lost their best players for 5 games.
Where there is a will there is a way.

That really was a shocking dive and blatant cheating more to be done to stamp that behaviour out !