Quite a strong view from the Ex Manager of Palace who's promotion was built solely on diving. http://tinyurl.com/qjhnl7j Ian Holloway has weighed into the debate over diving following the controversial injury-time penalty awarded to Chelsea in their 2-2 home draw against West Brom on Saturday. Referee Lee Probert has been roundly criticised for ruling that Chelsea midfielder Ramires was fouled by West Brom's Steven Reid when replays appeared to show the Brazilian on his way down prior to any contact. And the former Crystal Palace manager has condemned the latest diving incident and reiterated his view that bigger clubs are far more likely to benefit from controversial penalty decisions. "I'm sorry I feel passionate about it," Holloway told Goals on Sunday. "These drive me crazy. I swear to you that wouldn't have happened the other way round. That would not be given at the other end. It wouldn't. "That's Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. How big are Chelsea? How big are the crowd? It wouldn't happen the other way around - the pressure is not the same. The pressure is not there on that referee." Holloway was fined £18,000 by the FA after criticising Mark Clattenburg's decision to award a penalty against his former side Crystal Palace earlier this season. Four weeks after that incident, Holloway saw midfielder Kagisho Dikgacoi sent off after tangling with Ashley Young who was condemned after winning a penalty for Manchester United against Real Sociedad in midweek. Holloway believes football authorities must get tougher on diving and insisted that players from bigger teams should not have to resort to such measures to win matches. "It is cheating you are trying to gain an unfair advantage from something. You are trying to cheat the referee that's what you are doing," Holloway said. "You can't do that, you shouldn't do that, it's not right, we are not allowing that in our game and if someone keeps doing it and doing it and doing it - have a look at his record and then ban him. "If you dive now and someone gets sent off and you get a penalty as well you've actually cheated your other fellow professional. That can't be what it's about can it? "What respect have you got for any other players? It's not just your team getting something but surely if your team's good enough you should get something anyway."
A man who built a Palace team around divers. How many penalties did they 'earn' in their promotion from the Championship? I'm almost surprised he didn't try and sign Tom Daly.
Back in 2004/2005 when they were last in the Premier League, Andy Johnson scored about ten penalties. They've been like it for years at that club.
It's funny how some clubs have a theme that transcends changes in players, managers, boards etc. I think Dowie was in charge at one point when Palace were playing for time before kick off, then their whole game plan seemed to be based on cheating and stretching the rules. They're a side I really struggle to watch when they come here. It wouldn't take much for me to find somewhere else to be that match day.
I agree with a lot of what he says but as has already been pointed out, he can't say anything after last season. He loves playing the 'we're a small club, we get nothing' card but last year when his team were flying high and winning penalties every week he was happy enough. DMD - I always think that about teams with themes that stick around even when the personnel change. One obvious one is that City always lack a decent striker but conversely some teams always seem to have a constant supply of them. Scunthorpe did this for years; every time their star striker moved on they just found someone else to start scoring. Now it seems to be Burnley.
We've certainly had a shortage of strikers, but I don't know if it's right, but it seems like we've done really well with keepers. Maybe it's all the practice they get?
That and centre halves. Since we got relegated from the PL the last time we've had Gerrard, Ayala, Chester, Hobbs and now Davies as our regular CBs who've all been excellent. The more bit-part ones like Faye, Bruce, McShane and even Liam Cooper and Sonny Bradley all did well when they played too.
The blokes a ******. How can he not feel embarrassed saying this after his side cheated themselves to what was it, something like 15-20 penalties last season? Stupid ****.
Ignoring the irony of his stupid diving comments then he's right about the other part - every single one of us on here KNOWS that the exact same incident at the same time at the other end would not get a penalty. How can that be right? We sit here in Blighty always going on about the honesty of our game and the principles by which we play, criticising any pervecived foul play in any other league, yet we essentially turn a blind eye to what we all know goes on. Holloway is completely right about this but what will happen? Nothing, that's what. And then as soon as anything goes wrong with football in Johnny Foreigner land we'll all get high and mighty.
16 (I might be including one from the playffs) I think that was the game where I'd been working a ridiculous amount that week and fell asleep waiting for Kiraly to take a goal kick.
