Random Jottings on Simulation

The Laws of the game call it simulation, the media calls it diving and the man on the terrace calls it cheating. Whatever we call it, it has universally been accepted as a Bad Thing; indeed Stoke City manager Tony Pulis recently called for Liverpool striker Luis Suarez to be banned for three matches following a dive by the Uruguayan during a game between the two clubs. Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers believes that his player doesn’t get the penalties he deserves, although in fact Suarez is now like the boy who cried wolf; his reputation means that he will probably have to tied to a goalpost and be whacked about the body by a defender using a corner flag before he gets a penalty. Likewise Fernando Torres, another player who is no stranger to controversy in the “was it a foul or was it a dive?” stakes.

The fact that Suarez and Torres are Uruguayan and Spanish respectively is grist to the mill of those who believe that diving is an aspect of the game that we have imported, however the truth is more complex than that.

In 1972, Francis Lee set a British record for the number of penalties scored in a season, with 15 of his 35 goals scored from the penalty spot. Lee himself earned many of these spot kicks, some of which he was accused of winning by diving, resulting in him being dubbed Lee One Pen. Latterly ex-England striker Michael Owen has admitted that he could have stayed on his feet when winning not one, but two penalties in World Cup matches with Argentina. Somewhat hypocritically, Owen says “I’m totally against diving but.........I have been guilty as well, at the 1998 World Cup I was running flat out, got a nudge, went down. Could I have stayed up? Yes probably.”

The belief that diving was imported along with the influx of overseas players probably stems from the dual facts that there are now so few British players in the Premier League together with every Premier League game being covered by TV with a multitude of camera angles and every decision scrutinised ad nauseam by the panels of pundits. Back in the day when Franny Lee was banging in his fifteen penalties not only was there no blanket TV coverage, but those games that did appear on the box were only filmed by a limited number of cameras. Frequently the pundits and the viewers had no better a view than the referee. Diving is probably only a little more common now than it used to be, it’s just that these days there is no hiding place from the TV cameras. Whatever diving did take place back in the 1970’s was however, highly frowned upon when or if it was spotted, and if it was exposed it was often at the time of the incident and by an opponent who had little compunction in taking matters into their own hands, either immediately or later in the game. It would have taken a brave forward to dive in games against certain 1970’s defenders who were renowned for administering their own justice, regardless of what decision a referee might have made.

The media have rightly taken against diving, or cheating, or simulation or whatever you want to call it, although sometimes they can be somewhat sanctimonious on the matter, as though they are shocked by the idea of sportsmen in general, footballers in particular, and especially British footballers, cheating. Once the rewards are great enough, the possibility of detection remote enough and the penalties for being caught slight enough, it will happen in professional sport, just as it happens in finance and politics and whether the media likes it or not, in journalism.

This piece first appeared in the programme for the Romford v. Heybridge Swifts match in Ryman League Division One North, 24th November 2012.

Ironically, perhaps, the day before publishing this piece here, Liverpool visited Stoke City and guess what? Liverpool were awarded a penalty, their first of the season, for a foul on Luis Suarez that not even Tony Pulis could contest. Not that it did 'Pool much good as Stoke ran out 3-1 winners.