Didier Drogba cheats. The fans know it. The refs know it. Pundits know it…even bloody Didier Drogba knows it.
“Yes,” he confessed, “it was handball, but it’s part of the game. If City had done it, no one would have mentioned it, but everyone is out to make a big mess about Chelsea.”
But is it really a case of victimization of the champions? Tottenham’s Robbie Keane has had a helping hand (Get it? Hah!) on his way to a goal multiple times this season, yet has not suffered so much as a slap on the wrist (Get it? Hah!). There probably could have been a case made for poor ol Didier, if he hadn’t also sprouted this nonsense in the same interview,
“Sometimes I dive, sometimes I stand,” he admitted. Brilliant. Not exactly groundbreaking news, though the response has been furious from rival supporters and press alike.
But what specifically is the problem with confessing this most severe of football sins? Divers are everywhere and everyone knows it, why is it a bigger crime to come out and be honest? Surely the playacting is despicable when players like Jose Antonio Reyes try to maintain that a particularly nasty gush of wind is justifiable reason to go to ground, clutching his shins for dear life? Neither Reyes nor Drogba show remorse, but at least the latter will admit to it.
Drogba’s actions and subsequent admissions may also finally see some FIFA sanctioned punishments for divers with the FA leading the cause, a sort of Jean-Marc Bosman of cheating.
So we say keep on cheating, Didier. The more high profile cases of handballs, elbows, diving and rolling we can get the sooner it’ll be dealt with.