I think these are our most covered topics. We’ve discussed it here, here, and here, and provided material for Patrick Barclay. If you read those articles (which I don’t suspect for a second you will) you’ll see our position is abundantly clear. There were two incidents this weekend that fulled the debate – one in the United/Chelsea game, and one in the Liverpool/Birmingham game. Here is our take on them…

1. Drogba on Brown, Chelsea v United

We’ll be biased here, as there is no more vitriolic hater of Drogba than us. But he quite clearly fouled Wes Brown, preventing the baked bean from likely clearing John Terry’s header. But that is not our main gripe. Our gripe is the universally cited reason that it wasn’t given. And we’re going to pull Danny Murphy up on this – he’s by no means the only, or most guilty party, but he put it perfectly on ESPN’s pre-match coverage last night. This is paraphrased as I don’t have the actual quote:

You can’t give those. If you gave every single foul like that, the game would be stopped every 5 seconds

That. is. not. a. reason.

If you pulled everyone up who committed a snide, dirty, underhand offence like shirtpulling it wouldn’t make the game stop every five seconds – it would stop people doing it. Admittedly there would be a transition phase while players got used to the fact they could not cheat, and during that period there may be more stoppages than normal, but ultimately it would wipe thos fouls out and would be for the tremendous good of the game.

The problem with this is the referees. As with one of the articles above, referees with the courage to punish these ‘minor’ offences should be lauded – a sly shirt tug or push in the back that sends you off balance as you are about to shoot (or in the case above, clear a goal bound header) is as ‘effective’ as scything the legs away. Referees have to have the balls to give a foul in these situations, else it will never be eradicated.

Furthermore, if players do not get fouls for the not-so-subtle shirt tug or the push in the back, it encourages them to exaggerate – fouls only seem to be given when the victim hits the ground, which has a logical progression – diving. By not penalising offenders, refs are inviting simulation. Another compelling reason to ensure they do.

2. David Ngog, Liverpool v Birmingham

David Ngog, after a poorly timed lunge by Lee Carsley, fell as if fouled – although there was no contact. It was a dive, as Carsley did not touch him. But what was he supposed to do?

After beating the man and inciting a rash scythe, should Ngog have let Carlsley’s studs smash into his ankle, risking serious injury? He did enough to earn the penalty (or pelanty as Chris Waddle repeatedly put it), Carsley’s tackle saw to that. He didn’t get the ball and dived in in the box – the fact he didn’t actually catch Ngog is immaterial.

It’s murder vs attempted murder – yes a less severe offence, but an offence nonetheless. And an offence in the box should be a penalty.

Both Wayne Rooney and Darren Bent have recently pre-meditated lunges by goalkeepers and diluted the effect by starting to go down before contact was actually made – and there was every sympathy for them. Why wait for a full-blooded assault by the keeper when you know the foul is coming. Do your best to self preserve. And Ngog did exactly that.

Again, it comes down to referees. If a rash/dangerous/mis-timed tackle is made, referees should penalise the offender whether or not contact is made.

This would remove the necessity for contact and for injury – if you know you are going to be hammered into by a two-footed studs-up tackle from a brutish defender are you not entitled to try and get out of the way? Does that make the tackle any less dangerous? And therefore any less of a foul?

Perhaps last night’s decision was in fact very good, progressive refereeing.

I doubt it though.

N.B. Any cheating discussed above – or in fact probably ever – pales into comparison with this animal. She should be caged… Thanks to Colin Mercer for the video.

The Times’ football luminary Patrick Barclay has a piece in today’s edition (well it’s on the website so I assume it’s in the paper) about outlawing shirt-pulling, or grappling as he calls it – you can read it here.

He makes a point that we have made a couple of times before – that to eradicate the cheats, you need to clamp down on the small offences. He suggests a sanction for shirt-pulling equal to that of a handball – a fine idea.

You can read our view on the issue here – and we also talk about it here and here.

Nice to see our work is being plagiarised by one of the broadsheet dailies…

Read this if you haven’t done so already – it is my take on the shirt pulling debate. If you can’t be bothered, my basic tenet is that to cut out widespread cheating you have to clamp down on the little things, and refs who penalise minor examples of offences are right to do so.

Another instance of this cropped up in the Man City – Hull game yesterday. Geovanni retook a free kick twice (three times in total) due to players breaking from the wall to charge it down – and for two of those offences, players were booked – first Shaun Wright-Phillips, then Steven Ireland. Mark Hughes was fuming, the players were incredulous – but for me, the referee did excellently, and should be applauded.

If they continued doing it, he should have booked more of them.

The fact is – as shown on MOTD – that the City players broke and charged the ball down before the attacker had struck the ball – that’s against the rules. And by the letter of the law, which we have to encourage referees to stick to – to avoid inconsistency and uncertainty – Phillip Dowd did precisely what he was supposed to.

He wasn’t cowed by angry Man City players, or the abuse from the fans – he did his job. To avoid the cheating malaise infecting the game, all referees have to be equally strict – equally good.

Another example came in the Bolton v Liverpool game. Gary Cahill’s header was disallowed (rightly) because Pepe Reina was obstructed. ‘This happens all the time’ I hear you cry; but that’s the problem. Because it is not clamped down on, defenders think they can get away with it. But you can’t obstruct off the ball – not even in rugby can you do that – so if it happens, it should be penalised.

So, Rob Styles, a pat on the back for you too.

Let’s hope all refs clamp down on the subtle cheating – the obstructing, shirt pulling, gaining an illegal advantage on free kicks, plus others receiving less exposure, gaining yardage on throws and set pieces, time wasting, and a thousand more. By preventing the little things you stop them mushrooming to a game-ruining excess.

Letting them get away with the little things gives them carte blanche for the bigger.