DIVING is cheating. Go and watch a football match this weekend and you will see players tumbling and collapsing as if they have been shot in the back of the head. They do it because they think they can get away with it, but if the football authorities, referees and supporters stood up and said “enough is enough”, the problem could be eradicated overnight.
The Times contacted every club in the Barclays Premiership to see if they would back our campaign to give diving the red card and the majority were happy to do so. As a result of their co-operation, our posters will be going up in dressing-rooms all over the country and players will get the message that the fans who pay their wages have had enough of seeing their heroes roll over and fly.
Sunderland may be marooned at the bottom of the Premiership, but the Wearside club hate diving almost as much as we do and their spokeswoman was desperate to get her hands on our posters and plaster them all over the Stadium of Light.
Bolton Wanderers, Blackburn Rovers, Birmingham City and Everton are also keen to see the cheats given their comeuppance, although the spokeswoman at Goodison Park took some convincing that we were not trying to flog deep-sea diving holidays.
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Newcastle United — not for the first time — were caught on the horns of a dilemma. The Tyneside club would love to put up our posters around their training ground, but space is at a premium because their managerless players are training at a temporary facility.
Maybe we caught them in a bad mood, but only four clubs — Arsenal, Aston Villa, Manchester United and Manchester City — were unwilling to take part in the campaign. A spokesman for City said that he was “not interested”, while Villa and United indicated that they would take part only if the campaign was backed by the FA Premier League.
The English Schools Football Association has no qualms about backing our campaign “100 per cent” and John Read, the chief executive, welcomed our efforts to rid the game of the plungers and the freefallers.
“We definitely notice that when a case of a player diving is highlighted on television or in the media, then we have children copying the professionals at school the next day,” Read said. “The problem is getting worse but having said that, our coaches are well-versed in identifying and treating the diver.
“There are many disciplinary issues that we have to deal with, such as respect for officials, but we are using more and more fully qualified referees and although diving is becoming part and parcel of the game, we are doing all we can to eliminate it and educate the next generation of players.”
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Listening to radio phone-in shows may not be the best way to judge the mood of the nation, but anyone tuning in to BBC Radio 5 Live or talkSPORT this week will have realised that supporters have had enough. Malcolm Clarke, a spokesman for the Football Supporters’ Federation, thinks it is time for players to stand up and shut up.
“Diving is a form of cheating,” Clarke said. “The vast majority of supporters want to see it eliminated from the game. Fans are prejudiced and if their team gain an unfair advantage because one of their players has dived, then they are not going to complain, but it is a problem at all levels of the game and it needs to be dealt with.”
So the message to the Premiership prima donnas and the Football League con artists is loud and clear: the people who pay your wages have had enough of watching you trying to cheat the referee, the supporters and the game. If The Times has its way, the next time you dive, you will be diving for cover.
DIVING SEEMS OK IN MANCHESTER
How the Premiership clubs responded when asked whether they would be happy to put the Times’s No Diving poster in their dressing-room
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YES
Birmingham City, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Charlton Athletic, Everton, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Newcastle United, Portsmouth, Sunderland, Tottenham Hotspur, West Bromwich Albion, Wigan Athletic
NO
Arsenal, Manchester United — only if sanctioned by FA Premier League, Aston Villa — only if sanctioned by the FA Premier League, Manchester City — “not interested”
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WAITING FOR REPLY
Chelsea, Fulham, West Ham United.