if a player is going to be sent off because his opponent dived, he should walk over to him and either stick his head into the opponents face as hard as he could, or hit him in the stomach as hard as he could.  if you are going to be sent off it might as well be for something proper.  \ndid anyone see ivan campo's slight contact with 'divers are us', oops i mean chelsea, midfielder Michael Essien today? one tiny bit of contact and he doubled over in fake pain.  and this is not just a rant at chelsea's divers {hard to single out one, they have lessons on diving every Wednesday at 4.15pm} but divers throughout europe.\nban them, or shoot them.  there's no in between, must do one of these.
129218
You are right. There are too many divers and to me they are just plain cheats. El Hadj Diouff springs to mind at Blackburn early in the season. I watched that match and was ashamed to be supporting the team he played for, Bolton Wanderers. Chelsea are full of them as are Arsenal. To gain an advantage is one thing but to deliberately try to get a fellow professional sent off is a disgrace. Not only could it damage his earnings and team's performance but also his international prospects. Anyone doing this should be immediately sent off, fined two weeks wages and banned for three matches for which they should not be paid also. That would soon stop them
401233
WHy do u hurt me so much by posting such pics so often?\n\nAnyways,Zizou was just analyzing whether the headbutty was too mild or did Materazzi deserve even more coz  even if he did more than a headbutt, he would still only get  a red card which wont affect him anyway as he is  retired.\nNow i feel better.
573036
No, of course it wasn't deserved.  First of all, him and the guy ran into each other.  Second of all, it's a TRAGEDY that the best football player to have ever walked on this planet is sitting out what could be his last game ever and it's on his birthday (june 23rd).\n\nWords cannot express how mad I am at that worthless referee's decision.  It was clearly not a yellow card.  If France does not advance to the round of 16, I am going to find that referee and have a little "chat" with him.
252138
I think that your right, soccer players who dive or act hurt makes the sport less credible to many fans.  \n  I do think that you shouldn't forget all of the American sports where acting hurt gets you calls and it is not looked down upon.  In basketball, players take charges and flail their arms up in order to get offensive charges called.  In football, kickers and wide receivers often make a dramatic fall in order to get massive penalties called.  In hockey, players go down in a second if they are being hooked.  For some reason, these overreactions are looked highly upon in American sports, but looked down upon in soccer.  \n  I think your right, there is no place for faking injuries in sports, but dont forget about the standard which has been set in American sports as well.
505757
I greatly sympathise with Graham Poll, but he surely is quick with those cards sometimes. I wish he could, once in a while, consult his linesman, but as Jose Mourinho said, Graham Poll wants to be part of the action, and it is usually for the wrong reasons. I think he should try by all means improve his referring skills through involving his linesmen otherwise his reputation will continue to slide down disgracefully.
398391
Firstly I think that these former players are from the old school of football where playing for Country is a privilege and comes first and is not seen as something to be bargained with. I don't believe it's solely racially based as the same opinions and alleged penalties were also used to get Makelele to return to play for France against his wishes. These players did it harder and with far less options and advantages than players have today. Perhaps they feel they are somewhat spoiled by the financial side of the game now and the love of the sport and ones country is fast becoming secondary. Who knows. With that said, every player has to decide for themselves when their time to retire or to have a break is and as such risk the chance of losing their positions in National teams, which I am sure they have considered. It also depends I imagine on what "fine print" is written into their contracts in regards to their availability for National call up. We have constantly had comments like these made about Australian players in relation to people in authority questioning their commitment. You just have to get on with it and not take it all too personally when a former player or legend voices their thoughts.\n\nSecondly, as for the impostors, I agree with you, it has been an insane day on YA...lol\n\nEdit: it wasn't me who gave the thumbs down to the question...lol
566801
No to one, no to two, no to three, there should just be one head ref it simplifies things, no to four, no to five, on 6 do you mean he cant come back in, or he just has to leave the field for a few minutes, with his side playing with 10, and then he can come back in? if so, yes, if not, no, no to seven, no to eight, that would be awful, they could carry it down, and drop kick it into the net from a couple yards away, no to 9, and sort of to ten, i think this should be the point system:  four for a win, two for a tie, none for a loss in regulation.  In the group stage, ties at the end of regulation should go to two ten-minute halfs of extra time, silver goal style.  If still tied after extra time, the match would then be a tie, it would NOT go to penalties.  If there was a winner in extra time, that team would receive three points, and the loser in extra time one.
479307
this has been talked about for years in the NHL the thing is is sometimes players lower there heads or even turn there backs at the last second to try and protect them self's, but they usually get injured. the problem is if a player try to protect him self in that split second decision and he gets hurt and the refs just see him laying on the ground should he call a penalty which he clearly didn't see or just let it go, that's whats the big talk about this hits to the head or from behind just the same as you have players that dive, are they really diving or did they get tripped its a hard call to make when this is the fastest game on earth. but they will never take hitting out of the game its just to know if the player is out there to injure the other player or did the other player try to protect him self by lowering his head or by turning his back at the last second. this has been in discussion for many years over 20 years maybe even more but it will always be a though call to make by any ref.
232170
No It was not fair for Jens Lehmann to b sent off. it was a dive, but the referee should not been too extreme. believe me, if Lehmann wasn't sent off n Robert Pires was sacrificed, Barcelona wouldn't score much - considering Arsenal 's defense was excellent. i mean, come on, Samuel Eto'o's goal was clearly offside, but the ref didn't call that one off. the game was clearly one sided..n how did Manuel Almunia performed? <the subs GK> he was not as good as Lehmann.. sending in a GK who hasn't played since the last season..\n\nanyway, let's hope that Arsenal would be a lot better next season.. with the new Czech Republican Midfielder Tomas Rosicky.. tho it's a shame Robert Pires Leaves for Villarreal.. But hey, at least Henry's Staying for the next 4 years =D
509040
Agrees totally with you\n\nDiving and cheating is ruining the game to such an extent that Ref's actually miss real incidents.\n\nI thought players could be booked for diving. You can be booked for dissent and saying something rude. If refs were refs  things would be better and as for no tackling from behind what a joke. I expect footballers to come out with powder puffs and lipstick next
672917
Most of the refs have been reasonable but a few of them just lost it.\nThe ref in the Portugal - Netherlands game was on of the ones that was totally out of his mind. \nI think he just gave out some of the red card to the players that shouldn't have even gotten yellow cards just because they looked at him "in a way that wasn't respectful" or something stupid like that. I think that ref needs to find a therapist and fast too. At least before he looses his job.
197706
There is too much money in the game and it is my belief that managers encourage their players to dive maybe not as spectacularly as some do, but as there is alot of pulling of shirts and other tricks players use to gain a defensive advantage so I guess some plyers may feel justified by simulating as they feel they have been cheated first. A free kick takes pressure off or can allow the use of a set piece and as I said at the top with the money involved free kicks and any part of the game that can be used to gain an advantage will be used.
568257
OK I admit i didn't see the match live (I was watching France - Togo)\nBut I saw the replays of the goal, And yes I saw the Lines man Flag raised.\n\nBut  players should ONLY stop when they hear the Referee's Whistle, Not the flag.\n\nLook at it from the other point of view, What if you support SUI ?\nand the lines man raised his flag for a non existing offside, and the Referee didn't ignore him (knowing the the Linesman was totally wrong)\nHow would that feel ?\n\nyou say:\n"If you notice all the people who are saying it wasn't offside hasn't seen the game (which they admit) and only saw reruns of that part."\nSo ? I saw the replays, and I clearly saw the flag.\nJust because I didn't watch the match live, I shouldn't talk about this Off-side?\n\nFinally my friend,\nClear you mind and watch the replays again (if you can), But watch it as a football fan not as a Korean fan.\nAnd I wish you can see what we saw.
479363
I thinks it's ridiculous.  I think the players should be able to express their feelings with out getting thrown out of the game. It's one thing if they are fighting or something.....but if they're just yelling out loud or just plain frustrated....that's no need for a technical foul or being ejected. It's a terrible rule and I wish they would do away with it.
612089
That ref in the Portugal/ Netherlands got an awful bad time of it I think and was blamed for letting the game 'out of his grip', but I looked at each decision he made and think he was justified in doing so!  I think the players were totally to blame, they went down too easily (especially the Dutch), which frustrated the Portugese, there was the incident with Figo  ( Red card offense in my opinion) which seeemed to ignite the sitaution.  The players were being stupid, the ref tried to get a grip on the game by booking severely , this back fired as the Dutch took full advantage of every over zealous Portugese tackle and the Portugese got frustrated and made some really stupid decisions.
560294
I think that for some althiemers has set in. For most sometimers has definitely set in. They should be called up by a referee council to learn from their mistakes in an attempt to improve their work.
625014
Oh there IS A LOT OF CONSISTENCY.  We don't understand it YET but there is a lot of purpose in all ll those seemingly crazy decisions.  I predicted, two days before the Portugal Holland match that there would be 8 yellow cards and 4 red cards .I was wrong on the yellows... there were 16, not only 8.  --- Referee had a job to do only he did it badly and not in accordacnce with whoever instructed him to act that way.  I read that Figo has never had a red card in his career that Deco has never had a red car.Costinha has never had a red card, so what happend IN THAT MATCH ?  English hero of 1966 Bobby Charlton said and I quote him "IT IS LOVELY TO PLAY AGAINST THE PORTUGUESE, THEY JUST GET ON WITH IT AND DON'T CHEAT OR DIVE !" So what happened against Holland ?  What happened is that is it is all been decided that England will wint the World Cup.  The whole thing of Football is beginning to stink.