The gamesmanship is a joke!

Way too much of that sort of thing going on. Not just with keepers. Saw some player go down the other night clutching his shins in agony when all he got was a nudge on the shoulder.
Most of the Sunderland players folded like bad deck chairs when one of our players made any kind of contact.
It's infuriating and definitely needs retrospective bans for obvious cases when spotted after a game.

Everybodys favourite Referee should look at it!..

Er, I think he's known as VAR, and when he see's things like that he should stop play and tell his assistent to take care off it!..

They should just do 1 match bans for any of this activity it would stamp it out pretty quickly but it’ll never happen.

I don’t often comment, but this part of the game infuriates me. Gamesmanship, the dark arts - I’m with LIW, it’s cheating. Week after week we have pundits bemoaning VAR, how about for once they looked at the amount of cheating that goes on in a game and berate that, rather than laughing it off as “part of the game” and then blaming the officials for not being good enough. Don’t get me wrong I think the standard of officiating should be higher, but how much easier would it be if players weren’t feigning injury, falling over at the slightest touch, pulling shirts or playing WWE at corners. One of the biggest moans is the amount of time VAR takes, but if the standard of officiating was higher I’d be happy for VAR to look at everything, forget the stupid screen and just tell the referee what has happened and then yellow and red card the offenders. Still think that would be quicker than the time wasting we have at the moment. Unfortunately the powers that be are obsessed with the man on the pitch being in charge (is he really in charge when 99% of the time he goes to the screen he agrees with VAR) why not just award the offence and get on with the game? Ok rant over- but glad to get that off my chest😂

comment by DohaWhite (U13548)
posted 56 minutes ago
I don’t often comment, but this part of the game infuriates me. Gamesmanship, the dark arts - I’m with LIW, it’s cheating. Week after week we have pundits bemoaning VAR, how about for once they looked at the amount of cheating that goes on in a game and berate that, rather than laughing it off as “part of the game” and then blaming the officials for not being good enough. Don’t get me wrong I think the standard of officiating should be higher, but how much easier would it be if players weren’t feigning injury, falling over at the slightest touch, pulling shirts or playing WWE at corners. One of the biggest moans is the amount of time VAR takes, but if the standard of officiating was higher I’d be happy for VAR to look at everything, forget the stupid screen and just tell the referee what has happened and then yellow and red card the offenders. Still think that would be quicker than the time wasting we have at the moment. Unfortunately the powers that be are obsessed with the man on the pitch being in charge (is he really in charge when 99% of the time he goes to the screen he agrees with VAR) why not just award the offence and get on with the game? Ok rant over- but glad to get that off my chest😂
----------------------------------------------------------------------
100% agreed!

How many off the people looking at that screen like one team more than the other!..

The same as the refs reffing the games, I'm sure some like one more than the other!..

Agree Doha, great comments.

Other day a commentator say “He wont a penalty”

What !!!!!

He cheated, why are they normalising it.

On another note, hope your safe and sound Doha, and life is carrying om as normal 👍

comment by DohaWhite (U13548)
posted 5 hours, 31 minutes ago
I don’t often comment, but this part of the game infuriates me. Gamesmanship, the dark arts - I’m with LIW, it’s cheating. Week after week we have pundits bemoaning VAR, how about for once they looked at the amount of cheating that goes on in a game and berate that, rather than laughing it off as “part of the game” and then blaming the officials for not being good enough. Don’t get me wrong I think the standard of officiating should be higher, but how much easier would it be if players weren’t feigning injury, falling over at the slightest touch, pulling shirts or playing WWE at corners. One of the biggest moans is the amount of time VAR takes, but if the standard of officiating was higher I’d be happy for VAR to look at everything, forget the stupid screen and just tell the referee what has happened and then yellow and red card the offenders. Still think that would be quicker than the time wasting we have at the moment. Unfortunately the powers that be are obsessed with the man on the pitch being in charge (is he really in charge when 99% of the time he goes to the screen he agrees with VAR) why not just award the offence and get on with the game? Ok rant over- but glad to get that off my chest😂
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Yeah spot on.

And unless proper scrutiny and blame is pointed at the players then nothing will be done about it.

If the game is not careful then this will really hurt it 2 fold.

It's destroying the competitive fairness of the sport because the more this happens the more results will be dictated by it than football.

And it's also destroying the entertainment/spectacle for obvious reasons.

Refs are given a pretty impossible task, especially in a situation where a keeper fakes an injury.

But rules need to be implemented where video footage is analysed after the game, medical tests are done if necessary. and bans are handed out. If it's a club is repeatedly offending then points deductions.

It simply doesn't need to be and shouldn't be part of the sport.

They quite rightly banned Bamford retrospectively so the precedent is there.

He dived to get a player sent off and a few days later the card was rescinded and Bamford was charged.

If players are blatantly feigning injury to slow games down then they need to make sure those players get a ban or at least a warning that should they do it again then they will be banned.

Cheers LIW - don’t live in Doha anymore. Did think of changing my name, but never got round to changing it. Have still got friends there, so a bit of a worry, but everything seems to have calmed down in the last couple of days.