I crease up every time I see this one, punches himself in the face with the opponents arm! [video=youtube;F0CcOFuYldM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0CcOFuYldM[/video]
Then of course there's this prick, who has his own archive! [video=youtube;4muK9o_A2lc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4muK9o_A2lc[/video]
I'm not really surprised at players trying to get away with as much as possible because on a risk reward basis they're more likely to get something out of it than be penalised (or nothing will happen so why not try). I particularly dislike the idea however that this is somehow "clever play" that you hear mentioned occasionally on these talk footie programmes. I dislike even more the authorities who claim to disapprove of such behaviour and then do absolutely nothing about it. Video evidence in retrospect should be used and experienced and honest ex-pros used to assess incidents (much like the contraversial goals panel which I believe our own great Gary Mabbutt is on). I also think that cheating behaviour should be taken into account when assessing whether players are "great". Its always skill or other ability that is assessed whilst I think if a player dives, feigns injury etc that should automatically disqualify them from any assessment of greatness.
Couldn't agree more, Vimhawk. The better a player is, the worse any cheating he does should be regarded, as it's just totally unnecessary. If you look at a player like Christiano Ronaldo, he has virtually every aspect to his game that you could want, bar tackling, maybe. That he feels the need to play-act, dive, whine and moan just makes me sick.
Mine, too. It's actually one of the hardest rules in the game for refs to enforce. Being made of solid stuff, it is actually very difficult for a player to magic himself out of the way, and I have seen obstruction given when an attacker has merely run into a defender. Sure, if the defender turns his shoulder into the attacker, or takes a step sideways to block his path to the ball, then the call can correctly be made; but I have to say that most of the obstruction decisions I've seen have been wrong calls.
