Monday, October 16, 2006

Back and angry...

Let me vent my anger over the latest issue which is blighting Italian and world football and really starting to bug me - namely face-clutching. I watched a bit of the Siena v Messina game on Saturday night and they were at it there. I recently saw Willy Sagnol get Fabio Grosso sent off with a similar action. And it seems to go on as a matter of routine in almost every match staged across the continent at the highest level.

You know what I am talking about. Somebody gently brushes a player with his left pinky somewhere within three feet of his nose. Then the player "struck" goes down as if his cheekbone was fractured in 12 places. The red/yellow card is brandished and the "offender" suffers while the "victim" is back up and playing in seconds.

It is something which annoys me on a number of levels. At the very least it slows up play as any decent referee has to stop play for a supposed head knock. It is a pathetic attempt to land a fellow pro in trouble. But most of all there appears to be no sanction against anyone who is clearly play-acting. "Simulation" to try to get a penalty often earns a yellow card, I think this kind of feeble falling down should also earn a card to try to cut it out. Otherwise, I seem to be seeing it about three or four times in every match these days.

4 comments:

martinobhoy said...

My favourite was Rivaldo's in the 2002 World Cup. Standing at the corner flag, the ball gets kicked at him, hits him on the leg and he collapses clutching his face.

Red said...

I was going to mention that same episode, Martino. That was absolutely disgraceful.

* (asterisk) said...

Cheaters, the lot of them. Oh, well perhaps not, but everyone gets tarred with the same brush once something like this takes hold. And therein lies the problem.

a.c.t. said...

Even the whitest of white players have been prone to this behaviour - even Henry I hate to say. I suppose they have the attitude 'if you can't beat them, join them'. But that's no excuse, it should be severely punished, it's the only way to make it stop.