Is Diving Worse Than Stamping ?
What a stupid question, of course it isn’t, but the nation’s media seems to think otherwise as every newspaper has headlined Suarez’s dive for a penalty, rather than headline Stoke’s Robert Huth’s stamp on Luis Suarez.
Diving is part of football now, and every team has players that do it to gain a free-kick or a penalty. But Liverpool’s Luis Suarez seems to be the only player to gain headlines for his diving antics. There is no doubt Suarez goes to ground easily, but doesn’t Nani, Ashley Young or Gareth Bale, to mention a few, without the headlines Suarez receives.
The attention Suarez receives for his diving is becoming a “witch hunt”, which manager Brendan Rodgers described, and understandably so, when after witnessing an afternoon of thuggery towards his star striker, all the attention is on his man’s diving.
Stoke manager Tony Pulis made strong comments after Sunday’s match about Suarez’s dive and called for the FA to suspend him, without mention of his team’s physical approach to Suarez in particular.
Pulis is not the first manager to target Saurez, and it is becoming a common theme for opposing managers to criticise Suarez for his theatrics and this will and is already having an effect on the protection Suarez receives from referees, last weekend’s penalty appeal against Norwich being a prime example of things not going the Uruguayan’s way.
Diving should be punished in football, but not for one player and not for others which the media seem to be highlighting . Fines are useless as these players have so much money, and I don’t think suspending players will work too well either, but to take points off teams will maybe work and sort out the hypocritical managers who don’t mind their own players diving but vent their frustration when opposition players dive.
But after the events of the Liverpool versus Stoke match on Sunday, the main topic should be about the Stoke tactics and especially the blatant stamp on Suarez by Stoke defender Robert Huth, who could have seriously injured Suarez. Amazingly Huth escaped punishment for his actions and also the headlines as diving is the more serious offence which grabbed the headlines.
Diving is part of football that nobody likes but it is not and never will be as serious as seriously injuring an opponent, so Huth’s actions should have been headlined more than Suarez’s dive and he should have been punished.
The media in this country need to focus on the nasty challenges that could end a footballer’s career, rather than focus on a “witch hunt” on a player who does what most players do.