Does Cheating Matter?

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Sin bins?

 

Don't they have one already, called Soccer Saturday?

 

Deliberate handballs and diving are one of the same thing. Difficult for a ref in the heat of the moment to determine really cynical attempts as oppose to a players natural reaction at the point of failure to reach out a hand or take a dive. What about pre-meditated attempts to cheat for personal gain?

 

Racing has the Jockey club who at least try to identify non-triers or suspicious activities but what does football have? We had the incident involving Bury a few seasons back but watching some of the action especially in lower leagues there are times when you can at least question the validity of some goals and the way the opposition are almost 'invited' to score. Is it simply bad play or an organised scam?

 

Very difficult to determine cheating from a professional foul unless you treat them as the same thing. Equally, how do you really know the Carlisle player and his associates did not have a 'good bet' on Lambert to be first goal scorer knowing he would take any penalty Saints were awarded? Now I don't believe that allegation has any truth whatsoever in this instance because it was a televised cup final, it was clearly deliberate / couldn't help himself but only to stop an obvious goal scoring opportunity anyway and professional pride was clearly at stake for all players on the pitch. However, if we use it as an example that behind some deliberate acts and in lesser games that potentially more serious motives could be at play a la Bury and determining what is cheating on the field may only be the tip of the iceberg. Or do we believe that football is absolutely squeaky clean and on the field cheating is purely down to players trying to gain an advantage over the opposition and no more?

 

Interesting thread and interesting comments about what constitutes cheating.

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I hate seeing our players cheat. Fonte diving, or shall we say making the most from a poor tackle at MK Donns, Skacel sticking his arse out and then falling over near the corner flag to get us a cheap free kick, or Morgan taking a gentle knock only to hold his face and make a big deal out of it are all incidents that have annoyed me in recent times. If you are happy to overlook these incidents then I don't see how you can compain when someone cheats us in the same way.

 

Matt Le Tissier deliberately trying to kick a ball out of play to win a bet as he wrote about in his book? Some careers get tainted as it has been suggested but some are strangely bulletproof even though their actions don't actually help the team to gain a positive edge like your examples above or the examples of Henry or Maradonna. There is cheating for the team (professional foul) and then there is a more selfish kind. Which is worse?

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cant start my own thread, so can some one do one about the april fools day joke the OS have tryed thanks