"He has every right to go down"

I know this topic has been touched on by another poster but it really struck a nerve with me as it’s something that has wrangled with me for a very long time and I felt compelled to vent my grievances. One of the things that irritates me most about the modern game is the above phrase; which quite bizarrely seems to be endorsed by managers and most worryingly pundits alike.

As far as I am aware (please correct if wrong) the overriding factor that governs a penalty decision is that a goal scoring opportunity has been denied. Be that a blatant hack, pull of the shirt etc. Now in my book such 'contact' has to be enough to bring the player down or significantly put him off his shot or advances in the box. The notion that is gathering a worrying amount of momentum at the moment that a player has 'the right' to go down if they feel ANY contact is utterly ridiculous. I even heard Shearer endorsing it on MOTD. Just because a player feels contact such as a touching of shoulders or light stroke of a shirt they have ABSOLUTELY NO right to go down unless said contact caused them significant disruption.

I am sure others will disagree but with penalties being a hot topic at Carrow road recently I thought I would ask for others' views.

Rant over...

 

I agree 100%

 

Norfolknway:

A good rant non the less and one with which I whole heartedly agree, I can't abide this 'a dive is only a dive if there's no contact' bollocks

OTBC

 

A few seasons ago FIFA were trying to crack down on "simulation" this resulted in a few players getting booked for swan diving in the penalty area..... These days that seems to have fizzled out and the message to strikers is clear in the prem...... Just fall over dramatically and con refs..........
The managers have to keep their mouths shut or they will be punished ..........
We have been accused of whining like girls lately so the less said the better..

 

There should be no such thing as this so called 'penalty'. If a player feels contact they should fight it out amongst themselves until a resonable conclusion is drawn. I would put Holty up against any prem player. lets see if they go down like a fairy now, when a bare knuckle boxing match will entail afterwards to decide between the two of them if contact was made!!

But in all seriousness, i know what your saying and am trying really hard to not use any football punditary sayings, but 'its part of the modern game', 'it asks the questions about video replays', 'why didnt the third official see that'.

And managers are just as guilty for it 'well it will even its self out over the season'. What if it doesnt? What if we get the brunt of every bad decision over the course of a whole season.

'sick as a parrot'

 

Radical maybe but I think there is almost a case for refs to be MORE lenient when it comes to fouls particularly those in the box. Obviously I am not saying overlook the dangerous two footers as these should definitely be heavily punished but I think that in a fair 50/50 shoulder to shoulder or bit of tug of war then the ref should let it play out. They will soon stop going down in the box if a little (within reason) ruff and tumble was allowed. It is a contact sport after all!

 

Wenger does get crappy decisions year after year, If they draw Barca again this season you can bank on them finishing with 10 men and a penalty against them

 

It seems simple to me, if you'd award a free kick for any type of offence outside box, then the same offence equals a penalty if committed in the box. The so called foul against westbrom would never have been awarded if it occured outside the box as there was such little contact and it would have been less likely that the player would fall to the ground, screaming like a wee baby. I can't work out how there are four officials and they can't seem to see blatant cheating.

 

Absolutely agree with the initial 'rant'. It's really disheartening to hear pundits condone players going down in the box if they feel any contact at all. At this rate defenders won't be able to make a tackle at all, as inevitably even the cleanest of tackles involves a coming together of legs.

 

very interesting read and IMO this has all been caused by lazy refereeing, either lazy or dont want the agro after match. Years ago this was a mans game but since the euro invasion the refs have done little to try and stop all the play acting. I think its easier for them to just play 'no contact' in the box even if they get it wrong they just claim they didnt see it. When was the last time you saw a player yellow carded or sent of for play acting? One way of cutting it out would be video replay, if any blatant cheating then the player should be red carded, with the huge amounts of money in the game now it can greatly affected the finishing position of any team... i cant think of any other sport where cheating has almost become acceptable.

I can definatley see video replay having some use for penalty box and goal decisions in the future, its about time that blata et al get into the 21st century and bring this game back to be a proper sporting event, not a drama school arena...

 

Please correct me if I am wrong but didn't Howard Webb say last year that he wouldn't give a penalty unless the player went down? That to me is worse than anything pundits have said but explains a lot.

 

I also seem to recall a top ref, possibly Graham Poll, telling strikers to go down if they felt contact to make the referee's job easier

 

You know Holt will go over too easily and win us a pen against Bolton thus making us a bunch of double standard twats.....

 

I know i'm going to get moaned at for putting in my opinion, but here goes! To give a penalty it doesn't have to be a 'Goal scoring oppotunity' as describe by the poster. A penalty is given for any infringement within the penalty area, weather goal scoring or not! As far as going down easily, I'm sure most norwich fans agree that Grant Holt has 'gone down easily' sometimes whenever he has felt contact to win a penalty. Which by how the rules are being governed at the moment he is entitled to do so. So i would say its quite hypocritic for norwich fans to moan about this subject.

 

Guru,

Apologies but I think you have misunderstood my intentions. This is not something that has come about as direct result of our seeming misfortune with recent refereeing decisions moreover something that has angered me for sometime and recent events has simply prompted me to comment.

Neither is this a grievance about our recent decisions but more of a general despair at the 'cheating' in the game as a whole (Norwich included). I agree Holt goes down very easily sometimes - whilst ashamedly I would be happy with the outcome deep down I am very disappointed that this goes on.

 

agree that any foul inside the box should result in a penalty. its amazing how often this isn't applied though, especially at corners! they really do need to clamp down on all the hugging and barging in the box. on sunday i counted four instances in the west brom box where a penalty should have been given for all manner of offences at set plays and two in our own box where both holt and barnett had a handful of shirt. these are the things that wind me up the most - they are preventing a goalscoring opportunity! we might get 8 penalties a game for a couple of weeks so they'll have to learn the art of defending again pretty quickly won't they!!

 

Totally agree with you on this one supers! I know strange isn't it.

After playing centre half for 18 years, its amazing what you can get away with inside the box at corners that you can't outside. I have had players in headlocks at corners and got away with it, and the same has happened to me and nothing is given.