Diving Divas!

There's a lot of talk in the media at the moment about footballers taking a 'dive', in other words deliberately trying to 'con' the referee. There have been big headlines this week relating to an English Premier league team, Arsenal, who have had a player suspended by E.U.F.A. for allegedly diving in order to win his team a penalty. Now I don't want to get into a debate on the rights or wrongs of that particular case, but I would like to point out that 'diving' is rife in our own Premier league. I can fully understand players taking a dive in the penalty area, where a decision in their favour could win a penalty and providing they score, could help bring them and their team a 3 point bonus. What I can't understand is players (and it is condoned by their managers), taking a 'dive' in open play with the sole aim of winning a foul and/or getting an opponent cautioned. Two such incidents occurred at the Ballymena Showgrounds on Tuesday night when Glenavon were the visitors. In the first incident former United player She[a] Campbell, took a blatant dive in front of 3 officials, referee, linesman and 4th official, winning a free kick when it was perfectly clear no contact was made. This enraged United manager Roy Walker so much that he had to be physically controlled by the 4th official. The United fans were also in uproar and what made it even worse was that they enjoy a love/hate relationship with She[a]anyway. Then later on in the game Darren Lockhart was cautioned by the referee for a non-existent foul right on the byline when Glenavon player Costello took a blatant dive and the linesman who must have been in the early stages of myopia and was standing right beside the incident, aided and abetted the Glenavon 'love child' in his deceit. Surely this sort of thing must be stamped out before it gets a grip on our game, just because it's rife on the mainland doesn't mean we have to adopt it also. In an ironic twist, Glasgow Celtic who protested so vehemently about the Arsenal player taking a 'dive', were found guilty of the same offence in their next match. Their player's punishment was merely a caution, while the Arsenal player must sit out two games, it doesn't seem hardly fair now does it?