Contact Sport

When I wrote this post about the cheating antics of Gareth Bale during the recent match between Wales and Scotland - I had no idea that the Tottenham Hotspur player was such a master of the deadly art of simulation - or diving to call a spade a spade.

But then I came across the following post on You Tube which shows just how cynical football players can be on occasion - and Gareth Bale is not the only one it has to be said.

Here is the You Tube link which may make you laugh as the foolish (and no doubt highly paid) commentators did - http://youtu.be/FbaUhiS4lgU - but in reality there's nothing funny about this kind of bad behaviour.

Because it can - as we've seen - change the outcome of an important game and I bet the commentators wouldn't having been chuckling to themselves - if their own club or national team had been on the receiving end.

The 'beautiful game' is a contact sport of course - which doesn't allow players to kick their opponents up in the air as they used to do in the old days.

Yet the amazing thing about Gareth Bale's blatant cheating in the game against Aston Villa is that the authorities didn't throw the book at him - after seeing the slow motion footage.

Now I've heard David Moyes (the Everton manager) ahead of today's derby match against Liverpool - and he's scathing about the reputation that Luis Suarez (a Liverpool player) has for diving and/or exaggerating the effects of an opposing player's tackles.

And I agree with Moyes in general terms although I think the real challenge for football - and football managers - is to speak out about the problem of cheating more widely and not when it's convenient to do so - for example by reserving criticism for rival clubs and opposing players.

Gareth Bale should have been severely punished for his 'thin air' free kick against Aston Villa - and his own club (Tottenham Hotspur) along with the footballing authorities should have come down on this kind of unsporting cheating like a ton of bricks.

Seeing Red (14 October 2012)

I didn't begrudge Wales their win over Scotland the other night - over the 90 minutes the Welsh team certainly never deserved to lose.

Maybe there was even some poetic justice - a bit of payback to compensate for that famous Joe Jordan penalty that never was in 1977 - which helped send Scotland to the World Cup the following year in Argentina where the Scottish team underperformed on a grand scale.

But what does make me see red was the blatant cheating during the game - seems to me that some of the diving from the Welsh players - would have won a medal at the recent Olympic Games in London.

Especially the one from Gareth Bale which earned a penalty from which the player scored the equaliser - soon after Scotland had a perfectly good goal chalked off for the ball going out of play - which it emphatically did not.

The fact of the matter is that no one touched Gareth Bale - as the TV instant replay showed on the night.

But as soon as Gareth got into the penalty box (where he was heading away form the goal) - he caught one of his own legs against the other - before going down as if he had been shot by a sniper in the stands.

Given that this 'trip' was not caused by a Scottish player - the only conclusion to draw is that Bale's behaviour was deliberate - skillfully done I have to admit - but not the kind of skill that deserves to be admired and copied.

In plain language it's called cheating and one of Gareth's team mates - Aaron Ramsey - was up to the very same trick earlier on in the game.

Diego Maradona once excused his blatant cheating as the the intervention of 'the hand of God' - but what a load of baloney, even if he did go on to score an incredible goal - just like Gareth Bale.

With the kind of modern technology that's available these days - there's simply no excuse for referees making such mistakes.

Because it disfigures the game and encourages others to behave the same way - which is no example to set young children and aspiring players.

I like to think my views would be the same if a Scottish player had conned the referee - I think they would - as I've never liked to win anything by cheating.