Playing Fair - an Unfair Advantage

During our time that we've been a bit quiet on the blogging front, it seems that there have been several big topics that are trending in football. The one I'm going to chew over today: Unfair play.

It used to be so simple, you try and beat your opposition by outsmarting him on the pitch by either a great piece of individual skill or a fast flowing team move.Iit could of  been a long passing routine, or a split second break. It could of been a well crafted set piece manoeuvre that's been constructed on the training ground or it could of been as simple as luck. However from the last few weeks in the Premier League it seems that there is now a new way of trying to beat your opponent - cheating.

Players are now using the easily manipulated rules to gain unfair advantages, they know how to play the rules in order to find an advantage on the pitch. Whether it be, trying to con the referee into a penalty that probably wasn't, or a player that over reacts to get someone sent off or penalised. Its trying to beat a team without actually playing better than them on the day and it is starting to become a real negative aspect to the game.

Rather than trying to beat a player with a slick one-two, players are more keen on acting like they've been sliced in half when it was just an honest shoulder nudge. Its not just attacking players that are guilty of this however. When you see a close up of what can only be called chaos in the penalty area when a corner or set piece is being delivered, both defenders and attackers are trying to ask the ref for the advantage rather than just trying to beat the man to the ball. They'd rather play for the foul and that just completely destroys the tempo and overall product of the game.

Before people get the wrong idea I'm not saying EVERY player is quilty of this, but you'd have think pretty long and hard until you thought of a player that hasn't tried to play the ref rather than just contend for the ball. And in the majority of cases there is a foul and the right decision is made, but more and more now you see a blatant attempt to play for the foul and to gain an advantage through anything but just honest skill.

We can all agree that there is nothing better than watching a player on the world stages, to a player on a muddy sunday league pitch, beating a team with skill and genuine talent. But when you come away from watching a match in which there was a controversial freekick or penalty etc, then it completly takes away from could of been a worldclass free kick or move.

Football is a game focused around skill and it needs to be played in a way that reflects what the fans want to see - not  players playing the ref rather than the game.


Michael Johnston