The Sweeper: Diving Controversy Comes Back to Bite Celtic

Big Story

Oh, the irony. Just days after Eduardo’s blatant dive for Arsenal against Celtic went unnoticed by the referee, Celtic’s Aiden McGeady received a second yellow of his own for diving as his team beat Hibernian 1-0. Celtic manager Tony Mowbray rather weakly blamed “tiredness” for McGready’s fall, and pinned the reasoning for the referee’s action on the events of the past week.

“He has skipped past the first tackle, he has carried on and skipped past the second tackle, and then he sees another tackle coming. Is it a dive? Never in a million years,” Mowbray claimed. “A dive is when you try to influence the referee and throw your arms up. If the Eduardo situation had not blown up nationally, then 99 times out of 100, or even 100 times out of a 100, never would a yellow card have been shown.”

Worldwide

“Oops! EPL refs apologize for sending Wenger off,” headlines Sports Illustrated. Except they haven’t, though it is true the League Managers Association have said they spoke to referees’ boss Keith Hackett, who apparently said they would. “I’ve spoken to Keith Hackett and he fully recognizes the situation was an error and an apology will follow to Arsene Wenger,” League Managers Association chief executive Richard Bevan said yesterday.
Meanwhile, Wenger stirred further controversy by implying Manchester United’s Darren Fletcher was only on the pitch to disrupt Arsenal’s play with deliberate fouls. “I have seen a player who plays only on the pitch to make repeated fouls,” Wenger said.
The Global Game has a must-read piece on the tragic death of South African women’s international Eudy Simelane, with further coverage from Jennifer Doyle at From A Left Wing calling for greater activism from the sport’s governing bodies to raise awareness about homophobia in the sport.
Two Hundred Percent looks at the financial mismanagement of Bournemouth, and argues for tighter regulation in the Football League.

North America

The inaugural WPS season closed with an exciting all-star game, as the best of WPS downed Umea IK 4-2 in St. Louis. Look for Chicago Red Stars President and CEO Peter Wilt to offer his report card on WPS’ season here on Pitch Invasion later this week.
The New England Revolution revealed their fifteenth anniversary logo this week. While that’s a nice idea, surely they could have put more time into it than letting their latest intern have a go at it on their lunchbreak armed with a copy of MS Paint?
EPL Talk looks at the rebirth of World Soccer Daily as the subscription and internet only service World Football Daily. I’ve been avoiding this controversy recently as there’s more than enough out there on Steven Cohen’s comments about Hillsborough and the campaign by Liverpool supporters to get him off the airwaves, but to reduce this to a matter of media interest for a moment, it will be interesting to see if the venture succeeds.

The Sweeper appears daily. For more rambling and links throughout the day every day, follow your editor Tom Dunmore @pitchinvasion on Twitter.

Ralph says:

August 31, 2009 at 7:29 am

So it’s not a dive unless the player throws his arms out?

In that case could someone show me at what point Eduardo threw his arms out?

Also – who blew the Eduardo incident up?

Wasn’t it three of your own players calling for action to be taken against Eduardo Mr Mowbray?

Yer man dived mate – and if anything it was worse than Eduardo because at least Eduardo (as television pictures clearly show) was clipped whereas yer man launched himself.

Harry Barracuda says:

August 31, 2009 at 7:41 am

And the clock swings back to 12 o’clock.

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Gordon Smith you TWAT.

Jimmy says:

August 31, 2009 at 8:55 am

The rest of Scottish football is pissing themselves laughing at this.

Their fans are going into overdrive trying to defend his dive and most of the Scottish media are trying not to “offend” Celtic

Lars says:

August 31, 2009 at 12:44 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL55gAHsviQ

Eduardo does actually throw his arms in the air has he throws himself to the ground, he wasnt clipped at all. There was no contact what so ever. The fact that McGeady cheated as well does not justify clearing Eduardo. He is a cheat and should be punished. The nerve he shows when he scores the arrogant penalty only adds to his image as a player with no class what so ever.

toni says:

August 31, 2009 at 1:10 pm

SO, NOW UEFA AND SFA SHOULD ACTUALLY BAN CELTIC’S MCGEADY ….. THAT’S ONLY FAIR. WHAT YOU SAY, MR. TAYLOR THE HYPOCRITE???

Robert says:

August 31, 2009 at 6:34 pm

Waiting for Gordon Smith to take a stand against diving in his own back yard. Why do I think he won’t do it? After all, the deserved two-match ban for Kyle Lafferty from last season is a pretty good precedent.

Telehandler says:

September 1, 2009 at 5:39 am

The fact that McGeady cheated as well does not justify clearing Eduardo. He is a cheat and should be punished.

zenostore says:

September 29, 2009 at 6:26 am

The fact that McGeady cheated as well does not justify clearing Eduardo. He is a cheat and should be punished. The nerve he shows when he scores the arrogant penalty only adds to his image as a player with no class what so ever.

Online Electronic store says:

September 30, 2009 at 6:02 am

The fact that McGeady cheated as well does not justify clearing Eduardo. He is a cheat and should be punished,The nerve he shows when he scores the arrogant penalty only adds to his image as a player with no class what so ever.