The ridiculous situation football has got itself in to with diving

Žigić had his shirt pulled on Saturday. There's a good picture of it in The Mail. That's a foul and a penalty. He also chucked himself to the floor like he'd been shot. That's a dive. It's simulation and a foul to us. The pull on his shirt hampered him, so it was a foul, but it didn't cause him to fall, he faked that. That's cheating.

The foul took place when his shirt was pulled, the referee should have blown for the penalty at that point, what happens afterwards is of no relevance, but he didn't, referees won't, they'll only blow up if the player goes down. Žigić knows this so threw himself to the ground. In order to be given the penalty that the foul on him deserves, he had to cheat and dive.

Lots of players wouldn't have been awarded the penalty, they would have been fouled, they should have been given the penalty, but they won't play dead so they won't get the decision.

The refereeing of our game is ****** up. Players have to cheat to be awarded clear fouls and those that refuse to do so are penalised.

 

No complaints about the penalty from me.
The fact it was Zigic, the biggest player on the pitch just chucked himself on the floor like that, is what annoyed me the most. In fact i was embarrassed for him.

 

Pulling the shirt is a penalty, not holding the shirt. Zigic was fouling Mvoto at every set piece and he also had hold of Mvotos shirt, and the ref gave us nothing. He cheated, end off.

 

Maybe it was 6 of one and half a dozen of the other. Referees are placed in an impossible position with players pulling shirts and diving.

We should be criticising the players, not the referees.

 

Dermott Gallagher has just reviewed the penalty on ssn and said he would not have given it. Also labelled Zigic as embarrassing. Wonder what Flitcroft said to him after the substitution?, noticed Lee Clarke kept well clear!

 

Football has got itself into a ridiculous situation, full stop. Shirt pulling, followed by the dive, can lead to a penalty, but mass shirt pulling, obstruction, and nigh-on all in wrestling at corners leads to...well...f**k all. Tackling is being destroyed as an art form as there are so many things you're not allowed to do, and when you do tackle fairly some cheating t**t will make it look like one of those things you're not allowed to. Heaping pressure on the referee and his assistants is only allowed if you're a big name player or a big club, and the mess they've made of a once simple offside rule is laughable.

 

Essians dive yesterday was the thing that gets me ............ blatant cheating, embarrassing for himself, his team and for football. **** the yellow card for incidents like this ..... one weeks wage fine, to be put into grassroots, and the players will soon stop. After all, it's the money they care about, not the game or the people who follow it.