If you are new at playing or watching soccer, you will quickly realize soccer is a contact sport. Therefore, it is common to watch fouls as a result of aggressive tackles and/or illegal actions during the game. It is normal for a player to fall and flop on the pitch after getting a tackle. However, some players seem to exaggerate and flop too much making you wonder: why do soccer players flop too much?
Soccer players flop, at times too much, to make a foul appear more aggressive than it was in efforts to trick referees into calling fouls and getting the aggressor player to get a yellow and even sometimes a red card. This is also known as “foul simulation” and it can lead to game-changer decisions impacting the overall strategy and score of the game.
As a soccer fan, and at some point during my soccer career as a player, I experienced and continuously see bad referee decisions as a result of players flopping too much and faking fouls. This often makes me wonder if soccer players lack the right sportsmanship.
In this article, I will talk about the disciplinary actions when a player is caught faking a foul, and the reason why soccer players flop to fake fouls. Finally, I will briefly talk about how the introduction of VAR is impacting players’ behavior, preventing them from simulating a foul.
Table of Contents
- Is there a term for faking a foul in soccer?
- Is faking an injury illegal in soccer?
- Why do soccer players flop to fake a foul?
- The impact of VAR to prevent players from faking a foul
Is there a term for faking a foul in soccer?
Faking a foul is also known as diving, foul simulation, or simulation. The Internation Football Association Board (IFAB) defining the official laws of the game states that a simulation is “an action which creates a wrong/false impression that something has occurred when it has; committed by a player to gain an unfair advantage“
Simulation
FIFA Laws of the Game
An action which creates a wrong/false impression that something has occurred
when it has not (see also Deceive); committed by a player to gain an unfair
advantage
Is faking an injury illegal in soccer?
In soccer, there are primarily two types of offences: cautionable and sending-off offences.
Faking a foul is an unsporting behavior in soccer which is one of the many cautionable offences stated in the Laws of the Game. In other words, it is illegal to simulate a foul in soccer.
Cautionable offences are serious offences that lead to yellow cards such as repetitive fouls, delaying the restart of the game, unsporting behavior, and more.
The idea behind showing players a yellow card is to create a positive influence on the behavior of a player as well as warn the player from committing other cautionable offences, which can lead to a second yellow card which turns into a red card, sending off the player off the game.
Why do soccer players flop to fake a foul?
By now you know soccer players fake a foul to deceive the referees. Also, foul simulation is misconduct that can be punished with a yellow card, and even a red card if a player already gets a second yellow card. Knowing this, you might think it doesn’t make sense for players to keep flopping and faking fouls.
The reason soccer players keep faking fouls is that it works! Referees are deceived with foul simulation and make wrong decisions like calling a free-kick, a penalty kick, or showing a yellow or a red card to the “aggressor player” who might not deserve to be sanctioned at all.
You might think this is unfair, which I agree with you, but it is part of a sport that is subject to wrong decisions, including the referees.
Remember there are 22 players and at least 3 referees (head referee and 2 linesmen). Hence, 3 people need to be paying attention to the behavior of 22 players. For the most part, they can sanction fouls as they occur where the ball is. However, there could be misconduct behavior that happens in different areas of the field where the center of attention is.
Just like any other person, referees can also make mistakes calling fouls that shouldn’t be called. However, it becomes more challenging when there are players simulating fouls that seemed to be real. For instance, if you check the following video, you will notice some foul simulations should be easy to detect. But sometimes it is hard to tell the severity of actions as they occur in a matter of milliseconds.
The impact of VAR to prevent players from faking a foul
Virtual Assistant Referee (VAR) was first introduced on March 3, 2018, and considered by the IFAB as a historic step towards greater fairness in soccer. The idea behind VAR is to reduce mistakes and decisions made by on-field referees as a result of clear errors detected in camera in relation to:
- Allowing a goal
- Calling penalty-kick
- Showing the direct red card
- Mistaken identity (when the referee cautions or sends off the wrong player of the offending team)
VAR has impacted the game in all ways, preventing players from faking fouls or at least making them think twice about simulating fouls. With VARs, other referees can have access to multiple cameras from different angles detecting not only the severity of a foul, but also whether there was a foul or even contact between two players in the first place.
While people who follow the sport for a long time might have mixed feelings about the introduction of VAR, such as taking away the true identity of soccer, it is undeniable that leveraging the advancements in technology to make the game fairer is also a step towards encouraging a higher level of sportsmanship among soccer players.
