Source: Liverpool_Echo
TOMMY SMITH: Diving has gone on for decades
REGARDLESS of your personal view of diving and cheating in football, there's one indisputable fact.[LNB]There is absolutely nothing new about it.[LNB]The way the debate has raged since David Ngog went down on Monday night, you'd think we'd never seen anything like it before.[LNB]It's all very well some people saying it was obvious he'd taken a dive but at the time, I'm sorry - it just wasn't.[LNB]In fact the majority of people - myself included watching on TV from my sickbed - thought it was a foul at first.[LNB]It was only on seeing the replays - which of course the referee doesn't see - that it was evident a penalty shouldn't have been given. Ngog had over run the ball and decided to throw himself, which I hate to see.[LNB]But as I say it's nothing new. This all started in the '60s and '70s for me.[LNB]When we played continental teams there would be opponents throwing themselves all over the place and rolling over as if they'd been shot.[LNB]The South Americans too have been past masters at cheating for decades.
