To dive or not to dive: should our players cheat more?

Fair play, 'gamesmanship' and winning a match by losing your soul

Words: David Taylor

In a few recent interviews, Paul Heckingbottom has been more outspoken on a phenomenon that has stalked football for years with little more than the odd disappointed tut from a pundit and a resigned chuckling from legions of former pros.

We’re talking of the ‘dark arts’, as it’s now called. ‘Gamesmanship’. In other words, diving and writhing around while checking the referee has seen the despicable crime committed upon your person.

I’m sure this has happened since the game’s conception. Some of the most-loved footballers have been serial offenders. Brazil’s ‘Joga Bonito’, which has exhilarated generations of football lovers and inspired the game to new heights, has been interspersed throughout its glamorous history with dramatic tumbles and pained expressions that would warm the hearts of Team GB’s Max Whitlock and noted weirdo Tom Cruise alike.

It does feel, however, like instances of bad sportsmanship – deception, really – have recently been on the rise. You see it multiple times a match. A leap through the sky as boot meets shinpad-adjacent air; a sudden collapse as the opposition is on the break; a brave sporting soldier stock-still on the floor, physically and spiritually shattered by a remorseless assault of hand on shirt. Opposition move successfully broken up, the player is taken off the pitch for further treatment, stands up gingerly, does a few pantomime limps and miraculously sprints back onto the field for an attacking corner.

Meanwhile, players who stay standing as legs fly in their direction are almost punished for their honesty by officials who have been inundated with so many rules and clauses that I’m surprised they can even make their way out of the tunnel. Protection for players is important, but with each passing generation, more are using this well-meaning approach to gain an unfair advantage.

The Pinch @ThePinchNews

Best Actor 🎭 And the academy award goes to... Paul Mullin. A sublime swan dive into the penalty area showed a dedication to his craft that only the very best actors can produce. ‘Method’ Mullin’s performance reminded the Academy of Dustin Hoffman, James Dean and Tom Daley.

This isn’t a tirade against officials. God knows it’s a difficult job, from the international scrutiny at elite level to the worrying rise in instances of violence and aggression in the grassroots game. As this recent article (shameless self-plug) says, Graham Potter’s comments, that the behaviour of managers at the top level has an undeniable effect throughout the football pyramid, are on the money.

The behaviour of managers trickles down the football system, and so do the actions of players on the pitch. It’s a sad state of affairs when you see kids falling over on Sundays like Ronaldo at the Bernabéu (or Al-Nassr’s Mrsool Park), but if it’s accepted on the biggest stage, then why not?

Officials can only do so much when they’re drowning in a sea of deception, especially as the footballers who do cheat are playing a long-term game of crying wolf. There’s no way referees can ignore a player crumpled on the floor, even if they suspect a dive – imagine if their judgement was wrong?

The uptick in unfair play is baffling when you consider that football coverage is more sophisticated than ever. There are TV cameras everywhere, and VAR can show the world every single detail of any moment, yet elite players continue to cheat in pretty much every televised game. It should be deeply embarrassing, but somehow is given a free pass as “part and parcel of the game” (cliché alert).

Bryan’s Gunn @bryansgunn

It’s part and parcel of the game

So, what to do? Do you try to ‘play the game’ by falling over? A recent jump in the box by one of United’s players during the Swansea match seems to indicate that the issue is on the squad’s collective mind. We rightly praise players like Iliman Ndiaye for staying on their feet and attempting to play football the way it was intended, but when cheating has become such an alarmingly-frequent occurrence, should more honest players consider joining in to make it a level playing field?

It shouldn’t be up to players to sink to the dingy average. One course of action would be to retrospectively punish offenders on a much more regular basis – Heckingbottom called for this towards the end of last year, saying “Why are we not doing stuff, looking back, with the FA? It’s worth a gamble to cheat and go down.” We’ve seen this recently in the Women’s Super League, with the FA handing out a two-game suspension to Spurs midfielder Eveliina Summanen for “successful deception of a match official”. It’s happened before in the men’s game, too, but at such an irregular rate that it’s about as useful as a plaster on the Titanic.

Dom Smith @MrDomSmith

FA suspends Eveliina Summanen for two matches following deception for Ella Toone red card incident in Spurs v United WSL match. Summanen appealed charge but appeal was overruled. #woso

You’ll never stamp cheating fully out of football – like overpriced pints, it’s endemic. While there has been an encouraging shift around letting the game flow, there’s still plenty of room to more effectively punish those who try to deceive on the pitch. In a world where VAR can call offside by a toenail, why incidents of cheating aren’t pulled up – even in a half-time or full-time review – beggars belief.

Heckingbottom has been consistent in his disdain and criticism, dating back beyond his United tenure, and he’s right to continue calling it out. While we wait for the football gods to catch on, I hope that the manager and his charges continue to (on the whole) go about their game the right way. We’re not doing too badly this year, after all. And amongst all the money, glory and excitement, I think I’d rather the team lost a game than lost its soul.

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David Taylor is a writer, editor and former captain of Whiston Parish Church Cricket Club U17s. His writing has appeared in GQ, Esquire and National Geographic Traveller, with broadcast work for BBC Radio 4 and Premier League Productions. A South Stand aficionado (or so he likes to think), David has been a DEM Blades editor since 2018 and is Contributing Editor of The Pinch.