There’s something magic about the FA Cup. Well that’s what fans, the media and the sponsors would have you believe.
Only this weekend there was magic and it was dark-magic that looked down upon football thanks to Luis Suarez’s latest controversy.
Suarez clearly handled before scoring Liverpool’s crucial second goal against Mansfield Town. He knew he handled, his own team-mates knew he handled and so did everyone else inside Field Mill aside from guess-who – the officials.
It was harsh on the Blue Square Premier outfit who up until Suarez’s introduction in the second-half had looked very capable of getting a goal that would see them bag a lucrative replay back at Anfield.
There are two sides to what Suarez could and should have done in the aftermath of the goal.
Firstly he could have owned up to the incident. Yes there will be some football fans and pundits who will claim that it isn’t his responsibility to own up to his handball and that players should always play to the whistle and allow the officials to make the decisions.
Whilst I can accept that view, there have been footballers – Robbie Fowler and Miroslav Klose to name but a few – who have owned up to acts of unsportsmanship in bigger games than the one played yesterday at Field Mill. They owned up because they knew morally it was the right thing and that if they hadn’t done so they would be scoring a big ‘own-goal’ for their reputation in the game.
Suarez of course has always been in the news in England since arriving on Merseyside from Dutch side Ajax in 2010. He was involved in the race-row affair with Patrice Evra which has left a huge dark cloud over his reputation and has come under criticism for diving on a regular basis. So it’s fair to say that he isn’t a universally loved footballer in this country,
However had he owned up yesterday and told referee Andre Mariner that he had handled the ball just imagine what that could have done to his ‘bad-boy’ reputation in the game. Yes he will always have the Evra affair hanging over his career, but by owning up to the goal he would have looked like a player wanting to do the right-thing for the game and it would have been an act that would have resulted in a heavy shower of praise.
The media would have jumped all over it and Liverpool and his manager Brendan Rodgers would have loved it. It would have been a great bit of PR for them. Liverpool fans would’ve loved it and no doubt would have said: “told you so, Luis has always been a good boy, that’s why we’ve always loved him.”
Paulo Di Canio of course came back from pushing referee Paul Alcock to the ground whilst at Sheffield Wednesday in September 1998. It was a horrible dark moment for football and one which threatened to end Di Canio’s career at the top of the game.
However by the turn of the year he had transferred to West Ham and just over 2 years after the Alcock incident, in a match against Everton, in a brilliant display of sportsmanship, Di Canio shunned a goal scoring opportunity and caught the ball from a cross instead as the Everton’s keeper Paul Gerrard was lying injured on the ground after he twisted his knee attempting a clearance on the edge of the box.
In that very instance, Di Canio’s image was restored and he became universally loved by football fans not only across the country but around the world. FIFA loved it and the Italian even won a Fairplay Award as a result of his dazzling act of sportsmanship.
Sepp Blatter no doubt would have given Suarez a similar award had he owned up yesterday and it would have been a great turning point in his career. He had the chance to change his public image and decided against doing it.
However he is a South American and in that part of the world, playacting and cheating is just seen as part of the game. It isn’t looked down upon, it’s seen as taking advantage of a situation and doing your bit in order to win at all costs. That’s the football culture that Suarez has grown up on and perhaps is, has and always will be second-nature to him. So to expect him to change his ways now perhaps is a waste of time on our parts.
By Adam Dennehey @ADennehey87
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