Blog: johnloguk

The Dishonesty at the Heart of English Football

After England's failure to qualify for Euro 2008 everyone seems to know what the problem is at the heart of English football. Solutions aren't quite as prominent in the media, much easier to knock something than put it right of course, but I would like to suggest a more left field solution to the malaise.

I think there is a terrible culture of dishonesty that pervades all aspects of the game, and this has to change. The overiding spin and branding is wrong for a start. The Premier League is claimed to be the best in the world, but is it? Serie A and La Liga would argue that they were at least as good, but somehow they don't feel the need to keep banging on about it. Money is the controlling factor in the Premier League. Without wanting to sound too naive, I would suggest that the quality of football is more important in other countries. The powers behind the Premier League aren't bothered about the football, they are more concerned that the marketing and branding makes people believe that they are watching the best football in the world, and keeps the cash pouring in.

The same applies to the players. The Premier League, and it's top clubs, frequently claim to have the best players in the world. Ronaldinio, Kaka and numerous others might want to contest that, but again they seem more bothered about the quality of their football rather than the quality of their image. I'm thoroughly sick of the Beckham marketing bandwagon, but please don't get me going on that one. We have some very good players in the Premier League, and many of them are English, but they rarely perform to the level of their hype. A bit more honesty on the quality of English football and English players, and we might have more realistic expectations of the national team. I think the players thought they only had to turn up against Croatia to get a result, instead they were lucky to only lose 3-2.

Then there is the dishonesty on the pitch, what can only be described as lying, cheating and intimidation. Diving and "playing for" freekicks/penalties has become so sophisticated that I believe players actually practice it. I wish that referees could receive the same level of coaching in how to spot the cheats, then maybe the games would become more honest. For me, if a player falls down with his arms in the air he is diving. If you are tripped up your reflex reaction is to put your hands down to break your fall. Throwing them up in the air needs premeditation, and is cheating. It is difficult to always spot at full speed in the heat of the game though, and then there is the instant intimidation of match officials to cloud the issue even more.

This has to stop. The language used at, and physical intimidation of, referees is disgusting and not necessary. The excuse always trumped out is that "football is a physical game, adrenaline is high, so players get emotional"! You only have to compare football with rugby to see which game is the more physical, and which set of players still manage to control their "adrenaline". What happened to the experiment of moving free-kicks 10 yards forward every time a player abused the referee? It works perfectly in rugby, back chat is minimal, and the refs are in charge.

There are problems with the structure of English football. Coaching seems determined to produce clones, rather than naturally talented players from a young age, and financial speculators rule the game. But I believe the dishonesty issue is at least as important. As I type this there is another tedious "news item" on the TV of Beckham in China, it is insane. We spend far too much time intrigued by personalities, and not enough trying to produce genuinely great players. The players, and gullible fans, believe that they are the best in the world. They think that the best way to win is to cheat, not to play the best. So when they come up against genuine opposition, players with passion as well as technique, and officials who aren't intimidated and conned, they start to struggle.

I love football, but the Premier League has less and less to do with real football each year. Unless we are careful we will soon have the most expensive league in the world, but a mediocre national team that fails to qualify for anything. Then the bubble will burst, the foreign money merchants will disappear, and dozens of clubs will go to the wall like Leeds.

by johnloguk on 19:57 on 24th November 2007