Wigan boss Jewell: Let's bring in
diving
tribalfooball.com - December 05, 2006
Wigan boss Paul Jewell believes encouraging players to make the
most of challenges by diving would actually help to eradicate the
problem.
Last weekend, there were two high-profile incidents involving
Manchester United winger Cristiano Ronaldo at Middlesbrough and
also Arsenal midfielder Tomas Rosicky in their match against
Tottenham.
"I might be the only fellow in the world that thinks 'Why don't we
just allow it?'," said Jewell.
"The pubs are now open 24 hours a day and everyone was worried
people were going to be drunk on the streets but there are less
drunks on the streets now than what there was when they closed at
11 o'clock.
"So just allow it. Stop everyone talking about it. One week you
would get away with it, the next you wouldn't. It would stop it in
my opinion.
"No-one likes cheating but I think the best way to get rid of it is
to say 'Okay, if you get away with it, you get away with it'
because one week you will be unlucky.
"What will happen is that one week a player will dive, it will be
all over television. The next Saturday the same player will go down
and the referee will think 'Hold on, he has dived', and it will
later be shown he has been fouled.
"To me it will even itself out."
And he claimed managers, players and supporters were happy when
decisions went for them and only complained when opponents were
successful.
"People say it is cheating but if you ask any supporter if one of
our players goes down in the box in the last minute and you need a
penalty to stay in the league or win a cup you know what they are
going to say," he added.
"I might get lambasted for that but it is the way it is. We are all
trying to get an edge."
