David Moyes Calls For Retroactive Punishment For Divers

[Dirkus_Circus]

Ashley Young is one of the most notorious divers in the Premier League, launching himself with such abandon and frequency that fans have set his antics to the Superman theme. David Moyes is one of the practices's most outspoken critics, having fined his own players for it in the past. So when Moyes came to Manchester United this summer, and inherited Young, something had to give.

Young had a remarkable Saturday afternoon against Crystal Palace. In the 19th minute, he hurled himself across the box, trying to draw a penalty kick. He only earned himself a yellow card.

But then, just 25 minutes, Young again appeared to take a tumble. This time he was rewarded for it. The referee sent off Palace's Kagisho Dikgacoi and awarded United a penalty.

Yesterday, Moyes said he had spoken with Young about diving, but admitted "I can never be sure it won’t happen again." He called for the FA to institute video review of suspected flops, with penalties—either fines or match bans—handed out for obvious violators.

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"I’ve said for many years we should have retrospective action for diving. That would help referees no end."​

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The Premier League finally instituted goal-line technology this season, so it's not completely resistant to change. But any system where dives are reviewed, even one as toothless as the NBA's, is a long way off. Rio Ferdinand expressed his support for retroactive punishment, but only if the rest of Europe gets onboard as well. With UEFA dinosaur-president Michel Platini vehemently opposed to even goal-line tech, we're not holding our breath. And don't expect players to stop diving of their own accord: Ashley Young's two pratfalls earned his team a yellow, but also a penalty kick and a man advantage. Not a bad trade-off.

Link

 

[Aidan O' Neill]

I think the whole diving thing gets blown out of proportion. If a player is caught and punished (like Young was), then there's no problem. "Cheating" exists in all parts of the game. How is diving worse than a defender sneakily pulling a jersey? How is the worse than the tackle you'll see at least once a game where a team starts a counter attack and a midfielder will trip him with no attempt to play the ball and take a "good yellow". What about the corner tactic where one player blocks the defender tracking the run of their team mate? Technically that is cheating too. Diving to me is no worse than any of them. They are all deliberate attempts to gain an unfair advantage.

 

[Leo]

He's just trying to get the refs and authorities on board for his own personal gain.
Sly cunt.

 

[gkmacca]

When a player blatantly wraps his foot around the defender's leg, like Young does, it's easy to penalise them because it's an unnatural action and a clear sign of cheating. But that's about all any video analysis could identify as worth punishing. You can't be sure of much else when a player is going past at that speed, other than the fact that he won't be selling many ice creams. People can stare at slo-mo footage and project all kinds of intentions on it that are far too contentious to trust.

 

[localny]

I've wanted this for years. You'd eliminate diving in a season.

 

[Dirkus_Circus]

Another for the collection

 

[redhorizon2]

I've wanted this for years. You'd eliminate diving in a season.

I too am with Moyes.

 

[Jack D Rips]

Moyes said that in September, Today he denied that Young dived on Tuesday, #quicklearner

 

[Frogfish]

There are those that are debatable (even under the scrutiny of the camera) and those that are downright obvious. It is those, where it can be shown there was not even any physical contact, that need to be punished retroactively.

Still think we should bring in sin-bins ! Send those 'professional foul to stop a break-away' offenders to the bin for 15 mins as well as a Yellow. At the moment referees are reluctant to give Reds knowing the impact it will have on the game, whereas a Yellow is seen as the only other option and for players/managers an easy and acceptable penalty to incur to prevent a goal.

Sin-bins would be great for all sorts of fouls that at the moment go unpunished.

 

[Molbystwin]

Trouble is in really big games even if it were retrospective a striker may well exaggerate or engineer contact to dive and get a penalty... I'm not so sure that you can do it retrospectively tbh.

If you were to take away the focus from each individual dive but awarded bans for a track record of diving on the basis of it being unpunished unsporting conduct?

MOST dives do happen after at least minimal contact, so to have a panel decided after the event ( and the damage already done to the result) wouldn't stop the problem. Maybe if the charges were more serious and called into question the players character as a sportsman it might have more effect. Nike et al might find it harder to sponsor a proven cheating cunt...

 

[willby]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01l8wcr

Peter Schmeichel on Ashley Young
Duration: 07:30
The former Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel tells Dan Walker's Friday night show that he thinks Ashley Young is "so embarrassing" for his diving antics.

 

[Squiggles]

I read the headline as:

David Moyes: 'I'd like to make Ashley Young permanently unavailable'.

 

[WhyAlwaysMe?]

Best dive ever?

 

[jimmy]

LOL. Took him sometime to feel the "challenge"...