Howard Webb Encourages 'Diving'

[Lee]

This is true, but surely in the spirit of the game and in fairness if you can stay on your feet you should. If there is no need to go down, then stay on your feet and play football.

It's all well and good saying if you can stay on your feet you should. But the fact is players are constantly staying on their feet and being fouled and not receiving a free-kick for it. If they feel they can still gain an advantage then go for it, but chances are it will result in the player losing balance and more importantly losing an opportunity.

In an ideal world these sort of fouls would be picked up on but they're usually so slight they go unnoticed. Whenever they do get called the opposition fans always act like ****** and feel hard done by. So it's no wonder referees rarely blow up on them.

True but people are getting fouls when they fall over from contact that doesn't breach the rules and thats were the problem is

Completely irrelevant to the discussion. That is not the issue here. Webb is supposedly telling players who are fouled to go down. Not players to just go down when they feel like it. There's a huge difference.

 

[Redrup]

Just because the contact doesn't force the player to go down it doesn't make it any less of a foul. A foul is a foul, no matter how soft it may be. The advantage for the player going down is that it makes it more noticeable to the referee.

It's not cheating. It's not gaining an advantage. It's just allowing the referees a chance to make some better decisions in what is an impossible job.

This is where we disagree, obviously I agree that shirt pulls and other things that don't force you to ground are fouls, however if there is contact that doesn't force a player to lose balance/stumble to the ground/slow down with his movement then it's not really a foul in my eyes, it's just the physical aspect of the game.

 

[Lazaru5]

Football is too soft nowadays...

half of the tackles that would have gone unpunished 20 years ago would now be yellow card or even red card offences...

shoulder to shoulder has never been a foul, it has always been fair contact and yet you see free-kicks given for it in virtually every Premier League game.

What Howard Webb is saying is "I'm not a bad referee" (he is, he's garbage) "it's only a foul if you hit the deck" (no, it's a foul if it's against the laws of the game) "we can't be expected to see every little thing" (actually, you can be as that is your (and your assistant's) job(s)) and "it's not cheating if you go down" (and I bet he'll book more for diving than he'll give free-kicks!).

I know that Howard Webb is supposed to be our "best" referee but he couldn't referee an under 8's game properly! Every time I watch a game that he is reffing, I know he will make shitloads of errors, bad calls (or no calls) bad bookings (or no bookings) bad sendings off (or no sendings off), and so on...

just watch the World Cup final for proof - biggest game in a player's career and that ******* ruined the whole spectacle by not taking control of the game - ever! It should not have been allowed to descend into the farce it was but Howard Webb, being the useless tw@t that he is, let it become a farce.

I've been watching football for over 30 years, and the standard of refereeing has dropped to an all time low - especially if Howard Webb is our "best" referee!

Football is a man's game, not a girl's (no offence to ladies football intended), and if the players aren't up for the battle then they should take up scrabble! Contact is inevitable, it's whether the contact is; 1. deliberate, 2. dangerous, 3. illegal according to the rules, that should count, not whether the player has gone down or not.

 

[Cloud~]

If the contact doesn't force you to go down, then it ISN'T a foul. (This is obviously not including shirt pulls etc.). Football is a contact sport, people (I.E You) need to stop being *******.

I don't agree with the bold. If you make a tackle and it doesn't make contact with the ball, that is a foul, whether the contact was enough for the player to go down or not.

 

[5ICK]

Unbelievable. A referee saying "if you cheat you'll get fouls".

Anyway I guess he will find hard to see when a player has dived or not, since it seems kicking somebody in the chest doesn't deserve a red card (WC final).

 

[Redrup]

I don't agree with the bold. If you make a tackle and it doesn't make contact with the ball, that is a foul, whether the contact was enough for the player to go down or not.

That was a general statement in which I generally meant what I posted later:

however if there is contact that doesn't force a player to lose balance/stumble to the ground/slow down with his movement then it's not really a foul in my eyes

Anything else is just physicality in my opinion.