World Cup 2010: Cheating in Football
During yesterday's match between England and Germany, a clear goal was disallowed by the referee. Frank Lampard's shot clearly went over the goal line all in plain view of the German goal keeper Neuer. Now an interesting point is raised here about the once beautiful game of football; since Neuer saw the goal go over the goal line, is it not his moral obligation to admit that the goal was actually a goal to the referee. Apart from this many players dive, they fake injuries, they use their hands, are all these things cheating or just part of the game?
The cheating started this year even before the World Cup got under way. In qualifying, France played a match against Ireland and won after Thiery Henry used his hand twice to play the ball to his feet and pass it to Gallas who scored a goal to send France through to the World Cup.
Has sportsman spirit gone from the game, can it or will it ever be regained?
Nowadays in football, almost every match you will see has one or two instances of pure cheating. Players dive to try and win penalties and free-kicks, they score goals when they clearly know they are offside, they fake injuries to get players sent off and they use their hands to score goals. From Henry's use of the hand to Luis Fabiano's handball twice to score a goal in this current World Cup, to 1986 when Maradona scored his infamous 'Hand of God' goal, the cheating is getting worse.
Football can be contrasted with the sport of golf. In golf sportsman spirit is alive and with players pointing out issues that may give them an advantage even if no one but they themselves saw it. It is this sportsmanship that is lacking in football with the players main focus being about winning at no matter what cost. The pursuit of victory and making their team win is so strong that etiquette and fair play are thrown out the window. In this sticky situation who is to blame? Is it FIFA, the referees, the players or the coaches?
First off let’s take a look at FIFA. They refuse, even after repeated calls from players and coaches, to introduce video technology into the game. The biggest governing body in football has a few options in this regard. One is to introduce goalpost video technology that would have cameras placed into the goalposts and be able to see what exactly took place in front of goal. Another is an innovation that Adidas, the makers of the Jabulani ball, have suggested and that is to put microchip technology into the ball which can then allow FIFA to track the ball's motion wherever it is on the pitch. The final option is not about video technology but an idea is to put two additional lines-man on either side of the goal to check for goal mouth action. Why would FIFA refuse to implement such technology? It could be that they do not want to give up control or they feel that using technology will ruin the game of football. Whatever their reasons they really need to have a rethink.
Now let's look at the players and coaches. Players are tempted to cheat for many reasons, but the biggest reason seems to be money, power and fame. The allure of these three is so great that players are sometimes reprimanded for not cheating enough. The sport needs more heroes in it, those types of players that are not afraid of the consequences when they stand up and say that they saw the ball cross the line or that yes they did touch the ball with their hand. More honest players will turn the game from the dodgy money grabbing affair it is now, to the beautiful game it used to be.
The coaches are to blame as well because if they instilled heavy discipline and enforced self bans against players on their own team that dove, football would see a lot less diving and general cheating. But even the coaches’ one main desire is to win at any cost, because their careers are riding on their team winning. Players will continue to cheat and try to get away with as much as they can, as long as they can. If it is stopped at the governing body level and the coaching level soon players themselves will start to behave in an honest manner and some semblance of respectability will come back to the game.
Cheating in football does not look like it is going anywhere. It is not a question of video technology or extra referees, it a change of mindset amongst everyone involved in the game that is needed. There is no video technology in golf, yet players routinely point-out infractions that they caused that see them lose points. The money and fame issues of football have tarnished it and turned the players into corrupt, power hungry, willing to do anything to win athletes. It is a sad state of affairs that is going on in football and hopefully we will see a brighter day soon.
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