Wayne Rooney and other well documented serial divers may soon be spending several nervous days after every match looking over their shoulders. Earlier today, FIFA announced that they will not stand in the way of the Football Federation Australia (FFA) or any other football governing body who wishes to use video evidence to retroactively punish players for offenses that the referee either didn’t see or that the referee got wrong.
This all started last weekend when Sydney FC played Central Coast Mariners to a 1-1 draw. The Mariners’ Argentinian import Patricio Perez won a controversial penalty in the 73rd minute with the referee sending off Sydney keeper Liam Reddy for what he saw as a foul. Perez put the penalty kick away and the teams finished the game at a draw.
That would hardly be the end of that.
After the match, keeper Reddy appealed to the FFAs Match Review Panel (MRP) submitting an Obvious Error Application to have his red card rescinded. This type of appeal against a red card isn’t that unusual. You may remember that John Terry had a red card rescinded back in 2008 after review from the FA upon appeal from the player.
What happened in Australia, however, was that the review panel decided that Patricio Perez had dived and chose to not only rescind Reddy’s card but ban Perez two weeks for simulation.
Perez has no appeal available to him, the MRPs decision is final, and he insists that there was contact. He and the club are so adamant that there was contact that they have hired a team of lawyers and bio-mechanics experts who are ready to prove in a court of law that the player didn’t dive.
But before the club took those drastic measures they looked to FIFA for a ruling on whether video evidence could be used after the match to punish players. FIFA as is typical, saw this as an opportunity to change the rules without going through a formal rules review process and basically said “go for it.” Oh, they also said “we hate diving.”
We deem diving as a serious issue in the game and something we feel strongly about. We hope that with serious sanction it will be a deterrent. We want to stamp it out.
It is a misconduct charge for the players – our regulations allow our match review panel to right wrongs they see that happened on the pitch
The problems here are numerous. Specifically, in Australia, the ruling of the MRP is final and the player is unable to appeal the decision despite the fact that he maintains his innocence and that several experts have come forward to add weight to the player’s appeal.
Moreover, Perez has been quite distraught over being labeled a diver in what was his first match in a new country. As all Gooners can attest, no matter what happens in the appeals Perez looks set to become the poster child for the anti-diving crusade in Australia and likely the rest of the world. I can say that judging by the fact that the Daily Mail is still to this day labeling Eduardo a convicted diver (in their caption) for an offense he was cleared of by video review, by the referee in video review, and by a panel of experts. Zeus himself could come down from Mt. Olympus and declare Eduardo innocent and the Daily Mail would run a week’s worth of columns pondering whether this Zeus guy is really the father of the gods or if he isn’t just some guy who knows a few really neat card tricks.
So, FIFAs ruling raises more questions than it answers. Instead of standing up and making a rule about diving, they have passed the buck and are allowing a review panel from the Outback to create a new rule for them. In the mean-time, they are standing up against a player and his right to clear his name in an appeal process which is simply disgraceful.
But I have to wonder where they will draw the line? Will clubs be allowed to appeal every single incident that does or doesn’t result in a call from the referee? That seems to be the path they are on here in their religious zeal to “stamp out” the worst crime ever committed on a football pitch: simulation.
I also find a deep irony in the idea that FIFA is basically introducing video replay, but only after the match is over. Only after the aggrieved team has lost the trophy will they be able to appeal to the local governing body and receive “justice.”
After all, we can’t have instant replay slowing down our games any more than Gamst and Delap do toweling off their balls. No, reviewing a play when it happens would take too much time. Instead of dealing with the game in the 90 minutes, we need to have the games adjudicated over weeks as lawyers and experts in biometrics argue every detail of whether a player was fouled or not.
In the end, players will not stop diving one bit because of this rule. If Wayne Rooney finds himself in the Champions League final, tied 1-1 with Arsenal, the ball in the box and Almunia rushing to claim, he will dive just like he has done time and again. He’ll even know the consequences and dive. What’s two weeks suspension at the beginning of next season going to mean to him when he has the warm comfort of the Champions League winner’s medal?
Dive on Wayne… dive on.
