Apologies. This is a rant. But I need to get it off my chest...
I'm a little bit fed up with football at the moment.
Not the game itself, I've no issue with that, but throughout the professional game there has been an increasing tendency over the years for players, managers, club officials, pundits and journalists to consider the results of matches as the be all and end all. As a result, those representing clubs will lie, cheat and connive wherever they feel they might gain some advantage. There is so little honesty in football now and this causes my love of the game to wane year after year.
There have been a few occasions recently of opposing managers claiming in post match interviews that an incident was an absolute, no question, stonewall dive or a foul or whatever, but of course, their views are entirely contradictory. This when we can all see with our own eyes that those incidents are either marginal (and so the ref's opinion is no less valid than the manager's) or at least one manager is downright wrong. What is wrong with saying it how it actually is rather than putting a spin on it? Does your team play better for you next time if you lie on their behalf?
A few weeks ago, Marouane Fellaini was rightly condemned by his manager David Moyes for his head butting shenanigans during a game. Moyes got widespread praise for this and that's fair enough - but there's a point to consider; did Moyes consider that Fellaini was bang to rights and therefore condemning him was his only option? That is, would he have made excuses for him if the tv evidence wasn't quite so damning? It reminded me of John Terry in his post match interview after getting sent off against Barcelona last year - the presenter started showering the rat-faced racist with credit for "coming on tv and admitting it" when, if I recall correctly, Terry had said earlier that he didn't do anything, then after seeing that he was absolutely bang to rights, changed his plea to "it looks bad on the telly" which isn't even a real admission in my book.
Recently, the incident that has made my blood boil relates to Luis Suarez, but, despite being the one who handballed and claimed the goal, its not Suarez himself who is, in my opinion, the real villain. That honour goes to Steven Gerrard. Before the Man U v Liverpool game, Gerrard said, when questioned about Suarez's FA Cup 'goal' that he would happily celebrate if he scored against Man United and he knew he'd handballed the ball in. His justification for this attitude? "What would Wayne Rooney do?"
He's almost certainly right of course, Rooney probably would - we know that other players (Thierry Henry) have done it, but surely this isn't justification? The argument is simply "We'll, if he's gonna cheat, so am I."
Football now has an awful reputation when it comes to honour, fair play and gentlemanly conduct. You'd think the powers that be would want to do something about it? If some bright spark went into a FIFA meeting and said: "Here, why don't we do something about all the cheating lying and conniving going on in football? It's ruining the game!" Well, I reckon they probably did do just that a few years ago. And the solution? Get the players to shake hands before the game. Brilliant.
I'm not one to hold up Rugby as an example the way some do, but that's because Football already has its own history of fair play dating right back to when the game was in its infancy. That Corinthian Spirit has slowly but surely had the life squeezed out of it. Some may say that the game evolves and we move on. To an extent, I agree, but that should never be at the cost of sportsmanship.
If you remove sportsmanship, then surely it's no longer a sport.
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Football fans are blind to the truth and the game has (to a certain extent) revolved around that. How many times do fans stand up en masse to claim a foul when their player has clearly dived. And how often to we demand that players tell us they have moved to our club because it is 'big' or has 'great ambition' etc etc when we know that we only ever move jobs for money / promotion / interest etc but expect them to be 'above all that' because its football. And then how we moan when they move to another club and tell those fans they love them more than anything.
And secondly football hasn't / and wont be / around forever. In its current form it is only 150 years old. We survived before it and we will survive when something new comes along. Which it will. Therefore, it is natural that many will fall out of love with it as the years march on.
And lastly. Things were not better way back when, we just look back more fondly on the past and remember an idealised version of it. The Corithian Spirit was not there in years gone by to any greater extent than it is today. For example, footbllers are now athletes who could run rings around the 'real men' of the 70s. And they would have had dodgy decisions that they celebrated, but didn't have 900 TV angles to show repeats of the move. For futher evidence I suspect many England players knew the ball hadn't gone over the line in '66. Didn't stop them celebrating though did it?
Sometimes things happen and things are said that make the whole world of football a lot more entertaining.
All good points. To be fair, I do recognise that we can't know to what extent gentlemanly conduct was observed in the past (due to lack of tv angles etc). I guess it's just the impression I get which may well be flawed.
I think what really annoys me is that the dishonest and unsporting behaviour is accepted now as being just the way it is and we just have to live with it. I don't think we should.
@ValleyGary
I know what you mean about entertainment and I don't want Football to be like Rugby either. I'd just like a bit of honesty in the game.
If you could make 3 changes that could be implemented to bring back sportsmanship or to improve the game what would they be? I feel that while it is a results based multi billion industry it won't change!
It's down to the filthy lucre!
What about Bloodgate or Tuilagi's punch on his own international team mate which could have seriously injured Ashton. The press would have had a field day over that had it been football.
Cheating is prevalent in all Sport unfortunately because he cost of losing is so much.
That's not true! The game has changed very much for the worse, even in comparison with 1980ish. Take a look at the Big Match Revisited on ITV4. Yes, there are plenty of thugs about, but at least everyone just gets on with the game. No ganging up to scream in the ref's face, no rolling all over the pitch in feigned agony, no trying to get the oppo player carded, no stealing 10 yards at every free kick, throw-in, etc.
I guess in terms of fans safety its much better.
Going back a little more Chile v Italy really good example of no Corinthian spirit.
I remember when shirt pulling was the preserve of the continentals,70s/80s now kids do it.
Its human nature to want to win, as long as the ref doesn't see it players will cheat to win. Always have always will.
Super, intimidation was a big part of the game. I suppose players mostly got up quickly when fouled because if they made a fuss, the other guy would just kick or punch them harder next time.
Safety is better. The pitches, rotfl - absolutely no comparison. It's amazing looking back at what the top players played on.