In a moment of astonishingly ill-advised candour, UEFA President Michel Platini has offered a disturbing insight into the cheating mindset of footballers.
Speaking in response to the recent Eduardo dive, Platini, for some inexplicable reason, dropped this bombshell:
"I know why players dive. I've dived myself. We did it because we knew the referee wouldn't see it and because there were no cameras. If we could get away with it we would".
That was bad enough, but Platini felt the need to continue:
"It was always my dream to dive and get a penalty in the World Cup semi-final to make up for what happened when Harald Schumacher [the German goalkeeper] fouled Patrick Battiston outside the area. If I could have done it I would because I hate injustice. I just couldn't get into the box”.
It was his dream to cheat in a World Cup semi-final?! If that wasn’t despicable enough, just look at Platini’s imbecilic reasoning: it’s okay to cheat as long as it’s revenge against perceived injustice.
And this man runs UEFA?
In one fell swoop, Platini has destroyed any credibility he has and damaged his reputation as one of football’s greatest ever players.
How many times did Platini dive and cheat during his career? How many advantages did his teams gain as a result? It really is a sickening thing to contemplate.
As head of UEFA, Platini will undoubtedly support Arsenal striker Eduardo’s charge for diving, but given his comments, how can anything he says about fairness in football ever be taken seriously again?
According to its website, UEFA's core mission is: "To create the right conditions for the game in Europe to prosper and develop."
Realistically, how can UEFA and its mission have any credibility with a self-confessed cheat at the helm?
In my view, Platini's position is now untenable, and for the good of the game, he should resign forthwith.
Speaking in response to the recent Eduardo dive, Platini, for some inexplicable reason, dropped this bombshell:
"I know why players dive. I've dived myself. We did it because we knew the referee wouldn't see it and because there were no cameras. If we could get away with it we would".
That was bad enough, but Platini felt the need to continue:
"It was always my dream to dive and get a penalty in the World Cup semi-final to make up for what happened when Harald Schumacher [the German goalkeeper] fouled Patrick Battiston outside the area. If I could have done it I would because I hate injustice. I just couldn't get into the box”.
It was his dream to cheat in a World Cup semi-final?! If that wasn’t despicable enough, just look at Platini’s imbecilic reasoning: it’s okay to cheat as long as it’s revenge against perceived injustice.
And this man runs UEFA?
In one fell swoop, Platini has destroyed any credibility he has and damaged his reputation as one of football’s greatest ever players.
How many times did Platini dive and cheat during his career? How many advantages did his teams gain as a result? It really is a sickening thing to contemplate.
As head of UEFA, Platini will undoubtedly support Arsenal striker Eduardo’s charge for diving, but given his comments, how can anything he says about fairness in football ever be taken seriously again?
According to its website, UEFA's core mission is: "To create the right conditions for the game in Europe to prosper and develop."
Realistically, how can UEFA and its mission have any credibility with a self-confessed cheat at the helm?
In my view, Platini's position is now untenable, and for the good of the game, he should resign forthwith.
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ReplyDeleteI notice none of the many dives by gerrard and kuyt are noted above ???
ReplyDeleteor Ronaldo?? RVD?? when they are playing for manure
ReplyDeletere .subject divers it is not so much when the players dive it is when the managers have a moan when other players do it then say nohing when there players do it
ReplyDeleteIt's a disgrace that this biased cheat is the president of UEFA. If Arsenal wasn't a british team, the Eduardo wouldn't have been punished.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't about Gerrard / Kuyt / RVN or any other player diving. It is about the arrogant Platini, who sees himself as bulletproof and some kind of footballing demi-god.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Jamie .. the hypocritical fool must go!
It also didn't stop the cheating Juve players (that he was part of) from playing on after Heysel. Anyone who wanted to play football after something like that, doesn't deserve to be head of UEFA
ReplyDeleteGerrard/Kuyt dive? I am sure I haven't see any of that.By all fairness dive means stimulating a fall or overexaggerating a challenge.
ReplyDeleteRobbens action against Reina was a dive,Malouda on Finnan a couple of years back at anfield was a dive.Eduardo dive but I am sorry to say that ronaldo's 80% of "Dives" were fouls on the deliberate trailing leg which are legal.
Jamie Kanwar, i despise your views on the club you claim to "support"*
ReplyDeleteHowever I agree with everything you have said here and would actually be impressed if someone starting digging around in Platini's dirt.... becuase quite how this man is in such a position of authority is beyond. Pelé is equally well respected in the footballing world despite being an imbecile of the highest order! He regularly takes payments from sports management companies that own the rights to footballers in Brasil to say "this is the next me"..... like with Neymar.
*give moral or psychological support, aid, or courage to;
*argue or speak in defense of;
* To keep from failing or sinking; to solace under affictive circumstances; to assist; to encourage; to defend; as, to support the courage or spirits.
As you may, or may not have noticed, this is an article about Michel Platini, not Gerrard or Kuyt.
ReplyDeleteIt's very cheap to strike a man when he's obviously lowing his guard for a sec and making a mea culpa. We ask for honesty and for people to speak their mind, but when they do we just distort whatever is being said or take it the knee-jerk way. Actually, this was one of the first times I ever felt some empathy with Platini. He just said what he'd have done as a player, not now as an old man looking back. It's one of the few good things to getting old wisely: looking back and acknowledging your errors or faults. And that's what he's doing. He's not defending dive at all, as anyone without the brain of a sausage would know. He's just giving his view as an ex-player to the reasons why it happens from his perspective. C'mon people we can do better than that... but then again...
ReplyDeleteOh, and after what Schumacher did to Battiston if Platini had said he'd break both schumacher legs if he had a chance, I'd understand too. Like he said about diving to get a pk. Here's a vote to sincerity!
ReplyDeleteYes - Poor Platini. We should all rally round and give him a big group hug.
ReplyDeleteYou're kidding, right?
Even if he was a diver, why come out in public and admit it? What good does this to football, or anyone for that matter? He could've just said 'I've dived occasionally in the past' but he went on to say how it was 'his dream' to dive in a world cup semi! The man is completely out of touch if he thinks that is an acceptable thing to reveal.
The guy is a cheat - end of story.
So I guess if he'd said the following you'd be defending him too: 'When I was a player, I regularly took drugs to enhance my performance. In fact it was my dream to take the ultimate performance enhancing cocktail for the European Cup Final in 1985, but I just couldn't get hold of them before the game. if I could have done it, I would have done it"
Using your logic, he's would be just giving his view as an ex-player. Just an 'Old man looking back'.
Nothing wrong with that, eh? :-P
Yeah, and if he said that if he could have shot keepers as a player it would be ok, according to your logic. How can you compare performance enhancing drugs and diving is beyond me. Oh I know it's all cheating, right? So as he said he understand the dive and explains the dive mechanism in players minds, on a personal experience based on one incident, he'd be capable of anything and he's unfit to rule UEFA.
ReplyDeleteYou know what, Jamie, I even accept that and all, and you may even be right. But for someone who keeps writing all this controversial vitriol against rafa and Liverpool calling it "criticism reality" and telling everyone who disagrees that he's a "sheep", I'm really surprised that you expect an intelligent man like Platini to keep saying the same old crap that is expected of all sheep-minded people and not making a single sincere statement while stating he thinks diving is wrong and should be punished.
All I can tell you, mate, is that the only bad thing about sincerity of opinion is stupid people who can't take it and think is the end of the world when somebody says something hard to digest. Like you try to be but fail everytime.
I knew Platini was an indiscreet imbecile wwhen I reaad hia comment that Juventus would be better than the 1982 World Cup winning Italian National team because he (Platini) had just signed with Juventus. I simply cannot understand this tendency to appoint individuals who were good players to positions of responsibility. Just because an individual was a good player doesn't mean he has the temperment and intellectual ability to be a good manager or administrater. Virtually all of the best coaches in American sports were not top players. European sports would do well to learn this from American sports, then dumbells like Platini would be retired and forgotten.
ReplyDelete