WHY ARE FOOTBALL AUTHORITIES' STILL SO LAX ON DIVING AND PLAY ACTING?

Last week's thrilling 2-2 between AC Milan and Real Madrid was a wonderful advert for the Champions League. Wonderful except for one thing - Christiano Ronaldo's play acting.

During his early days at Old Trafford, Ronaldo was regularly criticised for his diving and play acting, but he had appeared to have grown out of these antics in recent years.

However, he was back to his old ways in the World Cup group match against the Ivory Coast last summer, and last Wednesday night, his blatant 'cheating' was enough to make any football fan let out a huge sigh of disappointment.

So why does such a gifted player have to act like this? Is Jose Mourinho - his fellow countryman - having a negative influence on him? The ultimate king of gamesmanship in my view, Mourinho is not entirely innocent himself of attempting to use every trick in the book to win, at any cost. The Portuguese boss will do anything it takes, even if it means damaging the integrity of the game.

But, despite this negative outlook, there have been some positive recent developments from some unexpected places. Serie A has, in the past, been a league where diving and play acting have frustratingly become the norm. During the nineties, when all the world's best players played in Italy, I was so often frustrated by the frequent cheating that unfortunately supplemented the terrific football being played by the great Milan and Juventus teams of that era. But last month, Juventus winger Milos Krasic was handed a two match ban for diving against Bologna. While the same punishment was handed out to Fiorentina's Alberto Giladino for a similar offence last season.

They are, refreshingly, clamping down on this cancer of the game, in the league, where in my view, it all started. So why doesn't UEFA deal out the same punishment in the Champions League? Is it because Ronaldo is one of the world's most famous and most gifted players? Is he too important to receive such a punishment in a PR sense. He was, after all, the World and European player of the year in 2008. Are UEFA just scared?

While on this occasion, Ronaldo was not guilty of diving, he was clearly trying to get a fellow proffessional sent off. In my eyes, this is an action which deserves an even greater ban, and the sight of the winger grabbing hold of his face, after barely being touched in the throat was appallng, even by his standards.

The Real Madrid star is not the only offender. There have been many top players whose reputations have been tarnished by their exaggerated theatrics down the years. Jurgen Klinsmann was one, and he even managed to glamourise his diving antics within his goal celebration at Spurs. Hristo Stoichkov was another supremely talented player, who, despite his awesome body strength, also found it difficult to stay on his feet at times.
And of course, there is the famous clip on Rivaldo clutching his face in 'agony' after being hit in the chest by a ball in the 2002 World Cup in Japan.

In addition, modern day stars such as Eduardo and Robert Pires have also sadly managed to tarnish their reputations due to carying out what can only be described as outrageous dives.

But diving has always been in the game, and not only on the continent. It is a false and unfair stereotype because this form of cheating is very much imbedded in our domestic game too. Francis Lee was a so-called artist of the 'theatrical dive' during the 1960s and 1970s, But the question that interests me is, is it really actually that easy to define what is and what is not a dive?

In my view, a dive is only really a dive when a player falls over forward after no contact from an opponent. This is not, in my view, in any way ambiguous.

However, if a player is barely touched and goes down, it is difficult to penalise them for diving because the contact, however slight, is still there for all to see. It may be annoying, but it is a grey area that is difficult to define objectively in that situation.


Players such as Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen have all been accused of going down too easily in the penalty area. But they very rarely go down after no contact. I am not only saying this because they are English players. On the contrary, if they dive after no form of contact, they deserve to be punished as much as anyone else.

There is, however, another more sinister issue here, and it is something that I have been concerned about for a while. In fact, both Sid Lowe of the Guardian and the BBC's John Motson have pointed the issue out in recent months.. And that is the recklessness of goalkeepers in the modern game.

Victor Valdes' clattering of the FC Copenhagen striker - Dane N'Doye- last week was not punished at all by the referee. But it should have been a straight red card. It brought back horrible memories of Harold Schumacher's shocking challenge on Patrick Battiston in the 1982 World Cup semi final.

This is not though, a new phenomenon that has just crept (back) into the game. Pepe Reina , I think, is often guilty of rushing out of his box with his feet raised, as is Edwin Van de Sar.

At times it almost feels like goalkeepers believe it is their right to challenge an opposing player recklessly, in the same way that a forward does. Commentators will often say 'ooh that's a forward's tackle' when a striker makes a late tackle, and maybe goalkeepers feel they can also get away with such crudity.

On the other hand however, if a forward even brushes a goalkeeper in the six yard box, a foul is given. It all seems a little unfair to me, and goalkeepers really do get too much protection these days.

And, despite my criticism of Eduado's dive against Celtic last year (and it was a form of cheating) the nature of the goalkeeper's antics cannot be overlooked. I can (somewhat contradicting what I have written before) in some ways understand Eduardo's reasoning.

Artur Borac (Celtic's goalkeeper at that time) certainly did race out of his box in a particularly reckless fashion. And Eduardo was, probably understandably, a little afraid. He has, after all, already had one career threatening injury and probably didn't want another.

But the Brazillian born Croat did not want to appear cowardly by merely just avoiding the Polish keeper, so he went down instead. It may have looked quite bad at the time (and I was as bigger critic as any), but in hindsight it actually makes a little more sense. Nothing is clear cut in football is it?

Some players are, in nature, just blatant cheats, and that needs to be stamped out. But when a dive also involves a goalkeeper racing out in a clearly reckless fashion, it becomes yet another grey area in my view.

It is another thing FIFA, UEFA and the FA etc need to clamp down on fast. Valdes should have been punished and wasn't. Is this because he plays for Barcelona? I would suggest maybe it is.

There are so many different areas of the game that need addressing and it is impossible to cover them all in one blog. But away from the drama of the imminent World Cup 2018 decision in December, there are also quite a few disturbing on field issues that are beginning to develop within the beautiful game.

If things continue the way they are, association football could well become the 'ugly' game. And wouldn't that be such a shame for all of us millions of fans around the world who live and breath this sport. Please UEFA, FIFA and the rest.. sort it out, before it's too late!