If there is one thing the football media loves it’s lambasting a player who has just embarrassed himself with a theatrical dive. Old football stalwarts like Graeme Souness or Alan Hansen, who played in an era where men were men and toughness was paramount, verbally bashing players for being divers. It shows you up as less than a man, it’s not in keeping with the spirit of the game and it’s downright cheating. But this Monday night saw a shift in strategy and a point awarded for the diving team.
On Sky’s Tuesday Night Football, West Ham travelled to Arsenal for one of the tougher fixtures that they will face all season. Despite any slip-ups the Gunners have had in recent weeks the Emirates is still an incredibly difficult place to go and Arsène Wenger was sure to have his team primed for what was a massive fixture in the race for fourth.
With the score at 0-0 West Ham’s Matt Jarvis knocked the ball past Arsenal’s Bacary Sagna, with the latter sticking a leg out and catching the former just above the knee. Definite contact, in the box, all the ingredients for a stone wall penalty. The only thing missing it seems was that Matt Jarvis essentially ran through the challenge, stayed on his feet and attempted to get the ball back. He was forced wide in the process and not much happened from there. Arsenal went on to win the game 3-1.
It was a foul, the contact was there, but it appears that the penalty was not awarded simply because Jarvis stayed on his feet. This is what saw a shift in the criticism away from divers and towards players like Matt Jarvis, players who are essentially more honest. Because how can you expect a player to not fall down after he feels the slightest contact, when he knows that being honest and staying on his feet will gain him nothing, even when he has been fouled?
The below is what Sky’s pundit in chief Gary Neville had to say about the incident:
“He should have gone down. Well done, your team haven’t won a game”.
“You can either be an angel and do what Matt Jarvis did and get a pat on the back off his Nan when he goes home tonight, or he can win his team a penalty.”
“The referee won’t give it if you don’t go down. Sam [Allardyce] said it, if you don’t go down you don’t get a penalty. It’s a foul”.
“I suppose in some ways people can say ‘It’s disappointing to hear you say that Gary’ – well then, be disappointed because ultimately that’s the game”.
When G-Nev started his punditry career I desperately didn’t want to like him. I didn’t like him as a player, why should I like him now? But I do, he’s won me and many others over. And, despite his slightly blunt approach, he’s got it right again here.
The thing that made this great TV, other than co-pundit Paul Merson wetting himself with laughter at the mention of Jarvis’ Nan, was how refreshingly honest it was. None of us want to be put in this position. We want to praise Matt Jarvis for his honesty and continue cursing those ‘pansies’ who fall to the floor after the faintest of touches. But the game is in a position where these players need to go down because they don’t get their just rewards if they are fouled and stay on their feet.
It’s not the fault of the players. They’ve been put in this position. If Luis Suárez is through on goal and gets obstructed unfairly by a defender, he wouldn’t have to throw himself to the floor if he was confident in the fact that he’d get the decision he deserves anyway. But he won’t, so he has to make the referee’s mind up for him.
It’s a conversation we shouldn’t be having. The FA has a job to do here to get rid of this trend. If they are as keen to eradicate diving from the game as they say they are then they can. Because they have it in their power to make diving unnecessary.
The publicity that this incident got on Tuesday night will only fuel the issue. Players will be all the more aware that they need to hit the deck to get anything. Matt Jarvis didn’t and his rewards for this were precisely zero.
This is an issue that won’t go away on its own. Until the FA and/or the referees act, players will have no choice but to continue Tom Daley-ing their way to a penalty. And none of us want that.