Adriano Banned, World Chortles With Glee
By: Martha | April 20th, 2007
The list of suspended players for this weekend’s fixtures just came out and, in addition to the expected names of people with too many cards (one of whom, to my great dismay, is Mr. Luis Figo), there’s one surprise: Adriano. Despite not picking up a single card in last weekend’s humiliating loss to Roma, he’s been banned for two games — for diving.
My response when I read this story was as follows: “Ha! Hhaaahaha!” (And that’s coming from an Inter fan — I can’t imagine what the rest of you are feeling right now.) The penalty the Brazilian won against Roma was laughable, and there’s a certain justice to the fact that he’s being punished in retrospect for the egregious dive. Inter, needless to say, are shocked — SHOCKED! — at the decision, and plan to appeal the “shameful” ban.
The video-based punishment is certainly a step in the right direction, but it probably won’t to much to deter such behavior until goals scored from falsely won penalties are taken away. And, since that seems pretty much impossible for about a million reasons (Teams can argue, for example, that the goals affected subsequent subbing patterns and tactics so you can’t just take them away and act as if the rest of the game would have been exactly the same. Or, what if the dive takes place away from the box, and a goal came off the subsequent free kick but only after four or five passes, and a defensive error — do you take that one away? Where is the line drawn?), these punitive measures might be all we ever get.
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Comments
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I agree with this move whole-heartedly. I think this is the best way to cut the simulation/diving/poor sportsmanship out of the game, and I applaud the Italian FA for taking this action. You are right to say that it will be difficult to do anything about this during the course of the game (without stupid American football style review delays), but if harsh enough penalties are applied after the game ends, then this is hopefully enough to deter players from these shameful actions.
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United States
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I am sure you can imagine how I reacted to this news. I have just about managed to tame my wild cackling…
*grin*Posted from
United Kingdom -
Honestly, I’m just surprised he got recognition for doing something on the pitch instead of off.
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United States -
I love it when cheaters get punished.
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United States -
Good for the officials. Though I wholly disagree with TMC analysis that replays are “stupid”(and I understand the flow if the game of soccer is much different than most other sports and you don’t want stoppage of the clock and all). Lord knows getting an offside call corrected would be the end of the soccer world as we know it. But at least with retroactive action on diving issues, you are clearly giving extra incentive not to cheat.
How many games will Gila be docked for his inevitable dive this weekend? I say 20.
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United States -
“(without stupid American football style review delays)”
Have you ever even watched Italian soccer?
There’s a whistle every 4 seconds. That’s more of a delay than our American style reviews.But yes, it’s great that there are consequences for un-sportsman-like play now! I’m sure there will be plenty of bans in the weeks to come, until teams smarten up…
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United States -
Way to go Italian football, see the do get some things right. Maybe England can take a lesson from them on diving no.
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United States -
Heh. mele, as a former high-school flag line member (a.k.a. victim of the “five minute” wait until the halftime show), I’ll have to respectfully disagree that calcio out-delays American football. And that’s just standard delays sans the additional weight of video review. If soccer were to approach American football with the dreg of in-game technical delays (oh gosh, can you imagine? 20 minute stoppage time? D:) IMO it would definitely not be a benefit to the sport.
However, post game vid analysis/match banning? Hey, if it works as a deterrent, I’m all for it (because to answer your question about how the rest of us are feeling? LOL. Mmmmmyeah. That about sums it up).
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United States -
My point is that the impact of the instant replay rule in American football leads to a couple of major problems: (1) 1-2 3 minute delays each half while an official looks at a replay on a monitor on the side of the field; and (2) a distinct lack of decisiveness on the part of the officials because they know they have the replay to fall back on.
This will not work in Serie A or any other professional league DURING the game, unless for some reason a league decides it wants a stop and start, choppy product. Part of the beauty of the game is the constant flow, replays cannot happen during the course of play if we are to maintain this. The best use of replay is post-game to provide a disincentive for the scheming, diving, and cynical play.
I think possibly 2 games off the top to Adriano is a little harsh, but he does deserve to be punished. The league should think this through after the season and come up with a policy, so that the players know what to expect (i.e. first offense = warning + fine, second offense = 1 game suspension + bigger fine, third offense = 2 game suspension + still bigger fine). Maybe they could even include docking the club points if there are repeat offenders or even multiple offenders from the same team. Clearly, the players do this now if they believe they can fool the referee and gain an advantage for their team. If there are more eyes watching, they might think twice.
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United States -
Tab i agree i too love when cheaters get caught haha except when it was juve:( lol but they deserve this because maybe now there wont be as many divers in the league…although i must sayy i think the portugese are the worst for diving. i dont think that calcio should get the American style replay that would just be stupid
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Canada -
It wasn’t shameful! It was buffoonery! (If you believe channel 4’s translation… I really want to know how to say buffoonery in Italian… never crossed my vocab list)
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United States -
hm, alright Stef, you’ve swayed me. I agree. But really, (as a side point)there’s a totally different feel to each separate league. I mean, I’ll watch FA Cup matches and it’s like a whole new game almost…
But hopefully this alone will work, and will make players think twice before taking a dive. If not what can they do?Posted from
United States -
Take that, Adriano.
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United States -
I love the ruling! I’ve been waiting for SOME federation to begin using video to review crap like this. Starting next year, the bans should be longer AND I think the TEAM should get fined as well. Why? Because this way, guys like Adriano don’t treated like heroes for taking one for the team. If owners who sign the pay checks are subject to losing money from simulation, diving will matter even more.
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United States -
[...] but also could put a little fear into the heart of divers league-wide. That said, though, the same thing happened to Adriano last season — he was suspended two games for a dive against Roma that the referee bought at the time [...]
Posted from
United States
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