On Wednesday night Eduardo, Arsenal's Brazilian born Croatian international, shocked the entire footballing world by appearing to "dive" to earn his side a penalty. People around the world looked on incredulously as nothing like this had ever happened before. This new phenomenon has been called "diving" apparently. People were shaking their heads with disgust the next day, all the tabloids and broadsheets were fuming and Sky Sports news are still talking about this two days later, twenty-four hours a day. I could understand this reaction, if diving was not common place in every single football match, at every single level, all over the entire planet!
Now, I'd like to start by saying that I don't really like to write about Arsenal, as I am an Arsenal fan, and I fear that my bias would ooze out of every single paragraph. However, I feel compelled to comment about this as I feel that my club is consistently treated unfairly by the media and now even Uefa, who have since charged Eduardo. I'd like this piece not to sound biased, but since bias does not seem to bother the media, we'll see what happens.
Where do I start? Let's start with some good old xenophobia. Who remembers when Wayne Rooney dived to earn Man Utd a penalty at Old Trafford against Arsenal in the infamous "Pizzagate" match? Sol Campbell clearly retracted his leg, there was no contact and Mr Rooney dived. It was blatant. Was Wayne Rooney banned retrospectively, was everyone talking about his dive? Of course not, they were talking about Arsenal's players throwing pizza at Alex Ferguson. Cast your minds back to a Champions League group game at Anfield last season. Who remembers Gerrard going down very easily when Atletico's Mariano Pernia touched his back a little bit? It was a clumsy challenge, but "Stevie G" went down like a sack of spuds. I could go on and on, Joe Cole dives, David Bentley dives, loads of English players dive, but they are never hung out to dry and labelled cheats by the baying tabloids. Harry 'salt of the earth' Redknapp leaves Portsmouth for Southampton, proceeds to get Saints relegated, then jumps ship and goes back to Portsmouth. Then, he leads Portsmouth to financial ruin and leaves for Spurs before the shit hits the fan. How can he do this and not be unpopular? If this was a foreigner he'd never work in England again. Does Al Murray secretly control the media and use it as a propaganda tool. It appears so, as our boys can do no wrong.
I also remember how underwhelmed the nation was when Arsenal reached the Champions League Final in 2006. They have a French manager and they are all French or foreign I hear you cry. It was not the case a year earlier, when Liverpool were in said final. Gerrard and Carragher were Liverpool's only English players that night. Arsenal also had two, Sol Campbell and Cashley Cole. Nobody mentioned that, and isn't that Benitez chap Spanish, and what about Josemi, Alonso and Nunez. The media always appear to have a very negative view of anything Arsenal do.
Now back to diving, it appears Uefa are going to have their work cut out when Spanish and Italian teams are playing in Europe this year. Dani Alves is perhaps the biggest culprit when it comes to diving. It is incredible watching him writhing in agony on the floor and galloping down the wing two seconds later, watch this; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obQu69Zy2IQ
Sergio Ramos is another great example and as Phil Thompson said at the end of that clip, it happens all the time in Spain, it's part of the game. I lived in Madrid for nine months and was a regular at the Vicente Calderon. It's a great place for football but in Spain diving is something that is considered an art. If you get away with it, great. It's not something that is considered cheating like in England. So how are Uefa going to deal with people like Alves if they are going to be consistent? Diving and gamesmanship is an innate part of Spanish footballing culture.
I think Eduardo can count himself very, very unlucky. The actual incident in question wasn't even that bad. Artur Boruc catches his leg with his thigh, although Eduardo goes to ground easily. Eduardo has no form, is he famous for diving? No. The media here in England clearly do not like Arsenal or Arsene Wenger and the fact that this minor incident has been repeated on Sky Sports News and in the newspapers ever since, has not helped Eduardo's case at all. Neither has the reaction of the Scottish FA or Celtic. The incident itself had absolutely no bearing on the game whatsoever, but Celtic are behaving like it changed the outcome of the match, it was 5-1. Move on.
So I implore all Arsenal fan's not to be too upset about this. I think Arsenal is unpopular with the media because we play fantastic football that has been masterminded by an intelligent, multi-lingual, articulate Frenchman. People hate this so nothing we do will ever be very popular, but it's only jealousy, resentment and xenophobia. So let's rise above it and hopefully win things the right way, playing great football without financial doping. We are the only big English club left without foreign owners, you'd think the media might like that....no chance.
(I would like to stress that not all the media is like this at all, but sadly from my experience the majority is).
Now, I'd like to start by saying that I don't really like to write about Arsenal, as I am an Arsenal fan, and I fear that my bias would ooze out of every single paragraph. However, I feel compelled to comment about this as I feel that my club is consistently treated unfairly by the media and now even Uefa, who have since charged Eduardo. I'd like this piece not to sound biased, but since bias does not seem to bother the media, we'll see what happens.
Where do I start? Let's start with some good old xenophobia. Who remembers when Wayne Rooney dived to earn Man Utd a penalty at Old Trafford against Arsenal in the infamous "Pizzagate" match? Sol Campbell clearly retracted his leg, there was no contact and Mr Rooney dived. It was blatant. Was Wayne Rooney banned retrospectively, was everyone talking about his dive? Of course not, they were talking about Arsenal's players throwing pizza at Alex Ferguson. Cast your minds back to a Champions League group game at Anfield last season. Who remembers Gerrard going down very easily when Atletico's Mariano Pernia touched his back a little bit? It was a clumsy challenge, but "Stevie G" went down like a sack of spuds. I could go on and on, Joe Cole dives, David Bentley dives, loads of English players dive, but they are never hung out to dry and labelled cheats by the baying tabloids. Harry 'salt of the earth' Redknapp leaves Portsmouth for Southampton, proceeds to get Saints relegated, then jumps ship and goes back to Portsmouth. Then, he leads Portsmouth to financial ruin and leaves for Spurs before the shit hits the fan. How can he do this and not be unpopular? If this was a foreigner he'd never work in England again. Does Al Murray secretly control the media and use it as a propaganda tool. It appears so, as our boys can do no wrong.
I also remember how underwhelmed the nation was when Arsenal reached the Champions League Final in 2006. They have a French manager and they are all French or foreign I hear you cry. It was not the case a year earlier, when Liverpool were in said final. Gerrard and Carragher were Liverpool's only English players that night. Arsenal also had two, Sol Campbell and Cashley Cole. Nobody mentioned that, and isn't that Benitez chap Spanish, and what about Josemi, Alonso and Nunez. The media always appear to have a very negative view of anything Arsenal do.
Now back to diving, it appears Uefa are going to have their work cut out when Spanish and Italian teams are playing in Europe this year. Dani Alves is perhaps the biggest culprit when it comes to diving. It is incredible watching him writhing in agony on the floor and galloping down the wing two seconds later, watch this; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obQu69Zy2IQ
Sergio Ramos is another great example and as Phil Thompson said at the end of that clip, it happens all the time in Spain, it's part of the game. I lived in Madrid for nine months and was a regular at the Vicente Calderon. It's a great place for football but in Spain diving is something that is considered an art. If you get away with it, great. It's not something that is considered cheating like in England. So how are Uefa going to deal with people like Alves if they are going to be consistent? Diving and gamesmanship is an innate part of Spanish footballing culture.
I think Eduardo can count himself very, very unlucky. The actual incident in question wasn't even that bad. Artur Boruc catches his leg with his thigh, although Eduardo goes to ground easily. Eduardo has no form, is he famous for diving? No. The media here in England clearly do not like Arsenal or Arsene Wenger and the fact that this minor incident has been repeated on Sky Sports News and in the newspapers ever since, has not helped Eduardo's case at all. Neither has the reaction of the Scottish FA or Celtic. The incident itself had absolutely no bearing on the game whatsoever, but Celtic are behaving like it changed the outcome of the match, it was 5-1. Move on.
So I implore all Arsenal fan's not to be too upset about this. I think Arsenal is unpopular with the media because we play fantastic football that has been masterminded by an intelligent, multi-lingual, articulate Frenchman. People hate this so nothing we do will ever be very popular, but it's only jealousy, resentment and xenophobia. So let's rise above it and hopefully win things the right way, playing great football without financial doping. We are the only big English club left without foreign owners, you'd think the media might like that....no chance.
(I would like to stress that not all the media is like this at all, but sadly from my experience the majority is).
