Will the real diver please stand up!

Football is a beautiful game. It connects continents like no other game does. It catches the imagination of generations, like no other sport does. Football on TV must be the most followed sports. FIFA world cup 2014 final was watched by an estimated 20 Million people, only on BBC.

How it does it?

The game is fascinating. It pauses the nations when a footballer like Messi takes the ball in to 4 defenders, dribbles pass them, then nears the goalkeeper and chips it over him to score. We are often left wondering, how a small man like him does it week in week out. When Ronaldo decides to take over a free kick from 30 yards, it doesn’t matter what you are doing, it can wait for 1 more minute, can’t it? Because in all probability, the ball will somehow hit the back of the net: you just don’t want to miss how it did.

It’s the skills the game showcases, along with the magic by which it connects nations, continents, and most importantly the Races. That’s why it’s such a great platform to let the generation focus on the game and forget about the evils that otherwise haunts them: poverty, crime, unemployment, racism. In fact it’s a way to win over them.

But is it all beautiful in the game today?

You will wonder, if every game: every instance of this beautiful game is decided on the footballing skills. The game was never 100% clean from controversies: you know Maradona’s hand of God, though no one ever challenged the skills he got in that 1986 world cup or that Argentina eventually were the worthy winners of the cup. But it has gone worst today if I may say this.

It’s not only funny, but equally annoying to see a player of stature of Ronaldo diving without a slightest of the touches from the defender. It’s not only him, you can add many names to the list: Suarez, Robben, it’s not about the names, they all do it today. It’s what the game has become. It’s not just the dive for the penalty, but the “act performed”: many a times to make referee give yellow or red cards to opponent player. You can keep adding to the list of these acts, but one word for all this is “cheating”. And it happens all the time in the game.

What does it do?

It gives a bad example to the kids watching the game. It frustrates the audience. It influences the referees. It influences the results. It influences the nation’s pride. And because so much is at stake, it conveys a message that’s “its ok to do this”, “it’s part of the game”. Most importantly for me, it disgusts me at my footballer.

It should not be. Every game has some grey area: in cricket, a batsman sometimes refuses to walk even if he knows he has nicked the ball. But for a footballer to fall down theatrically and plead for a free kick or a penalty is worst. You should win a game by playing football, Sir. And as the game touches such a huge number of global audiences, it must be as frustrating and annoying for all, as it is for me.

Why does it happen?

A lot at stake: not a justification though, but it is one of the reasons. A football game today brings so much pressure on the footballer, like it never did before. 3 crucial points over the weekend, spot in the Champions League, spot in the World Cup Semi Final. You name it. Winning the game becomes more important than the way it needs to be done.

And then of course, it becomes a habit, it becomes a part of the system. Fans from the other side boo you, but your team mates and fans put a blind fold and give you a high five!

How it can be stopped?

It will never be stopped completely, but at least it should be discouraged. What appals me is the fact that it has become an accepted part for every footballer, every team and every football manager. 

When a footballer of your opponent team does this and gets an unfair result, it is painful right? So why we should not discourage it all levels? Why not tell each and every player of your team not do it? Why not watch the videos of all the finished games and punish the cheater? This is where the footballing bodies come in to picture. And us? We have the biggest responsibility and actually, power to stop this? Why do we worship our footballer who does it? Why can’t we go to his page and say dislike for once: he won’t do it again, will he?

One way or the other, mutually by the players themselves, managers, captains, authorities and most importantly by us, it needs to be made vocal, that this is not accepted. Or, we must be ready to be on the other side some day and we cannot be crying like a hypocrite then.