For many, soccer is a game of fitness where players have to keep running for full ninety minutes, and sometimes, in extra time too, but they also need to dive occasionally either to use their header or to earn a penalty. Many legendry soccer players have recently been accused of using dives wrongly just to earn their teams a penalty and United’s Ashley Young is the new name to be in this list. In Tuesday’s Champions League Group A clash with Real Sociedad in Spain, the 28-year-old midfielder used his diving skills and earned a penalty and later many accused him of conning the referee, who was not in a better position to see the actuals, for an unfair reason and asked for a disciplinary action against him. Action replay clearly showed that this was not the genuine case to reward a penalty and many experts on TV called it a cheating. Sky Sports pundit Ray Wilkins openly bashed Ashley’s cheap move and said, “This is pathetic. This is as bad for me as all these over-the-top tackles we’re getting at the moment because that is a conning of the referee. I just wish Ashley would cut this out because he’s a good player but he’s getting a bad name.”
This is not the first time United’s winger has been seen diving pointlessly, in fact, manager Moyes has already warned him for a strict disciplinary action if he does it again, but this time, Scottish manager seems to be using rather a polite tone for his penalty attempt. He supported his guy and said, “I have seen it and the boy certainly tugs him in the box. If you look the referee is two yards away from it and decided to give it.
“All I know is he got a penalty kick from a decision, I don’t know anything about reputations or anything. The referee was there. He made quite a lot of decisions tonight and that one he gave a penalty kick.”
Though, match ended in a 0-0 draw, but United has now better chances to be in the knockout stage if they could win any of the next two fixtures.
Since, That Van Persie missed the penalty shootout; matter cooled down a little bit but still every notable is offering own views over the issue, like Sociedad coach Jagoba Arrasate who asked for TV replays for these incidents and said, “I couldn’t really see it from the dug-out. The player kind of folds. I would need to see all the replays from the TV.”