I'm watching the Newcastle Man City game and Aguero has just done his finest Tom Daley impression in the area.
Looking at it again the commentators said it wasn't a penalty but it 'can't be a dive because there was some contact'.
They said he looked for the contact and felt it so he had the right to go down even though it wasn't a foul.
So what exactly is the difference between that and the Vardy incident? The answer is the referee, that's it.
Kevin Friend is a decent ref who understands it is actually possible to give neither a penalty nor a yellow for diving.
So the question is can it ever be a dive if there's contact? How can a referee be 100% sure a player has dived and send him off if there is a coming together?
And how can the pundits treat two nearly identical incidents so differently?
I know a number of city fans including some on this board felt Vardy did dive on Sunday, and I do understand why people think that.
But it's the inconsistency that's just so maddening. If one incident is a yellow then so is the other.
What is a dive?
posted on 20/4/16
I think they should change the rules so pens are only given for denial of a goal scoring opportunity, inside or outside the box.
Too many pens given for players diving in positions where they are nowhere near scoring a goal.
It should be the chance of scoring that determines whether you gets free shot at goal from 12 yards, not whether you are on the touch line at an angle with 6 players in front of you.
posted on 20/4/16
With the Vardy incident I am absolutely convinced that the reason Vardy went down was not a dive nor the dafenders hand on his shoulder. If you look at the replays the defender catches Vardy's right foot. Vardy was travelling at speed and a clip to your foot is just like a tap tackle in rugby. It looks like an exaggerated dive from the reverse angle but from head-on Vardy was definately caught on the foot while he was running into the box. Take a closer look at Vardy's and the defenders feet when the contact happend.
posted on 20/4/16
A dive to me is no contact and I don't care what anyone says it wasn't a dive. He played for it and running at pace like that with legs tangled he went down. Wasn't a penalty but it was never a dive, not in a million years!
posted on 20/4/16
comment by True Blue (U9486)
posted 23 hours, 29 minutes ago
"Also, for Vardy's first yellow, Leicester had committed several challenges before hand and it got to the point were the next challenge was going to be booked."
So is that normal now, a player gets booked for a harmless challenge because others have committed fouls?
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It's a team game.
If Drinkwater murders the linesman, the others get done for joint venture.
posted on 20/4/16
comment by This Is Madness (U1209)
posted 23 hours, 15 minutes ago
Gratedbean - Aguero quite clearly deliberately kicks Mbemba's standing leg and then throws himself to the ground.
Boss by Hugo - I was more trying to point out the infuriating inconsistency. And there is absolutely no reason why the refs can't be consistent.
They will make mistakes of course - they're human. But the thing is the discrepancy in this case isn't about mistakes it's about the decision making process.
Moss and Friend both clearly saw virtually identical events and yet they took very different decisions based on the same parameters.
There isn't really any excuse for that. Refs should know how to interpret similar situations with a degree of consistency - that's what they go through training for.
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That's what makes life interesting.
Particularly for Spurs fans.
posted on 20/4/16
Comment Deleted by Site Moderator
posted on 20/4/16
Interesting development overnight: Vardy has a defender in none other than Roy Hodgson, who says his opinion is that the reaction was relatively understandable and that Vardy's been done an injustice.
Quite a statement to make on the eve of Vardy's "sentence"...
posted on 21/4/16
comment by foREVer irREVerend (U18331)
posted 4 hours, 30 minutes ago
What is a dive?
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ask Jamie Vardy - I doubt he'll be doing it in future
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He didn't dive in the first place!!
posted on 21/4/16
comment by The_Dungeon_Master (U4830)
posted 7 hours, 30 minutes ago
Interesting development overnight: Vardy has a defender in none other than Roy Hodgson, who says his opinion is that the reaction was relatively understandable and that Vardy's been done an injustice.
Quite a statement to make on the eve of Vardy's "sentence"...
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That concerns me greatly that he feels the need to make such an extraordinary statement, I hope he hasn't heard that an example will be made of Vardy!
posted on 21/4/16
Vardy plays for England now so will be treated leniently like all England players before him.
The FA never punish England players the same way as others.