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Yes you heard me right. Alessandro Del Piero is harming the A-League in the issues of simulation and respect to the referee.
Following the most recent Big Blue between Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory, much of the proceeding dialogue has surrounded Alessandro Del Piero’s ability to win free kicks.
Indeed, Joe Dimento argued in an article for The Roar that Del Piero should be protected against “dumb, disrespectful defenders who think only with their feet.”
However I would like to put forward a contrary view.
The debate about whether ADP is a diver is complex. In fact, to split all football players into two camps: “divers and non-divers” would be unfair.
Anyone can see that Del Piero is far, far from the worst “diver” in the world (Luiz Suarez anyone?) and he is probably not the worst in the A-League.
I believe he does however undermine the referee by using his status as a once-great footballer to influence the referee’s decisions.
It is true that Jason Geria got given the run around by ADP on Saturday and also true to say that he clearly fouled the Italian on a number of occasions.
However, it would be very interesting to see whether some of his tackles would be punished as there were against Del Piero had that been made to a lesser player.
I am not trying to suggest that the ref blindly follows everything Del Piero does, but in my mind there can be little doubt that the statue Del Piero holds in must at least make the ref think.
To then see ADP, the A-League’s (referee’s employers) greatest coup lying on the floor as if in pain would make Peter Green think.
Could he risk not punishing a player he did not think had fouled ADP to then be proved wrong on replay and see Del Piero injured?
Only once clearly did this happen, and then Peter Green was roundly booed and even Simon Hill questioned the decision. Replays showed that Milligan had clearly not fouled him.
Del Piero is clearly a master at winning fouls, and he should be applauded for shielding the ball in such a way that he sucks opponents into fouling him.
No A-League player can be considered “dumb” whatever it may look like and what may be written.
So to then win legitimately the amount of fouls Del Piero does is no mean feat.
What he should not be applauded for is trying to accentuate the amount of contact that is made.
I would love to see ADP take a foul that doesn’t force him to the ground and try and battle on, winning the foul without putting the added pressure of flopping to the ground on the referee.
Too often he lets contact that should send him to the floor do exactly that.
Simulation is one of the great evils of modern football, and any efforts by the players to eradicate it should be congratulated; Erik Lamela against FC Sheriff for example. He was clearly fouled in the box, but chose to battle on instead of flopping to the ground, and he missed a deserved penalty.
What goes around comes around however, and he got his penalty in the end in a man-of-the-match display.
Del Piero coming into the league had a great chance to set an example to all those players in the A-League who looked up to him to try and combat this issue.
Instead he chose to do what he has done and is normal in Serie A all his career.
While some of you may say it is unfair to expect him to change his ways, I believe that all Del Piero has done is make a bad issue worse, and give more ammunition to those from other codes to criticise our sport.
Then comes the matter of Del Piero’s constant communication with the referee.
Whichever game he plays in, ADP is sure to be the player who talks to the ref the most. To most observers, it seems that Del Piero is trying to dispute decisions that go against him, and argue for higher punishments for those that dare foul him.
The commentators will then invariably follow with a line such as: “Del Piero talking to the ref again, but then you can I guess when you are as good as he is.”
Well I’m sorry, but you can’t. No player can be allowed to be bigger than the referee.
Del Piero is setting an extremely poor example to the youngsters that look up to him, only adding to what is an extremely serious issue of disrespect towards the referee that is prevalent throughout football, from under 9’s on a cold windy Saturday to the Sydney Derby in front of 40 thousand.
It cannot be doubted that Del Piero was and to an extent still is a top-class player.
He has displayed skills on the pitch that had never been seen in league football in this country before.
He has also done wonders for marketing the game, and draws crowds wherever he goes.
However, it is my belief that instead of helping to fix the issues of simulation and disrespect to referees, he has actually forced our league backwards in its progression through these issues, and in doing so has inadvertently affected the standard of refereeing.
But that’s only my opinion, Roarers what do you think?
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