... you're absolutely right! Look at these videos of an incident that took place last night. Celtic had just scored a last-minute goal against Italian side AC Milan to win the match 2-1. A Celtic fan ran on the pitch and playfully 'touched' the cheek of Dida, the Milan goalkeeper. Dida starts to chase him, realises he can't catch him and falls to the ground pretending he's hurt. He was eventually carried off on a stretcher clutching an ice pack to his face! Of course we British don't feign injury like that. The link is http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=DZviLX37sMY&feature=bz301 There are several videos showing different aspects of the incident.
What a complete idiot. I hate that stuff. I would rather watch my son's Under 17's team play rather than Premier League all because of the feigning injury. It takes away the professionalism of the game.
A couple of years ago "Dido" was struck by a flare playing against Inter, he had a good reason to go down then, but this was just pathetic, obviously pathetic.
What an idiot, good to see Milan are not going to ask UEFa to take any action, but UEFA will obviously punish Celtic. I hope Dida looks back at that and is embarrased by the whole situation. Wasn't their a campaign to kick out feigning injuries in football matches last year?
Well Dida got a two game suspension, Celtic was penalized, the fan was banned for life. I actually find the usual dives more frustrating. I was bored in first grade and worked up ailments in my mind until I was able to get sent home. It was perfect until they started sending me to sick bay, laying on a cot was more boring so I ended up back in class. I'd suggest any man that falls down in "pain" should be set off on a cot for 5 minutes or sent off to see the doctor. It's good to see Dida get his due.
Correct. I didn't know the term wasn't familiar to Americans. I agree with your comments about diving. By and large we (the Brits) feel it's something of a foreign disease that is sadly catching on. Ususally British players don't feign injury (as much) because it's not 'manly' and because of the existence of rugby. Any footballer rolling around the floor pretending they've been shot is soon told "they don't do that in rugby." Especially true at the moment with the national side in the World Cup final and people paying more attention to their results as opposed to the association game.
I don't see many English as a first language players diving and feigning, it seems to be the Latin based language speaking countries that dive the best. I was at first disappointed to see Freddy Adu hit the ground in the US's 1-0 victory of Switzerland yesteday but the replay showed a solid boot to the face. But the ref apparently responds to "Mama mia, my shin, my shin!" not Adidas striped welts on the face. I am surprised players don't make a diving motion to the ref more often (or at all).