Performance Communications | مارس 11, 2014
In an age where a footballer diving to deceive a referee is almost expected it was refreshing to see the exploits of a German footballer over the weekend. Aaron Hunt, captain of Werder Bremen, completed a dive in the penalty area that Tom Daley would have been proud of and the referee duly awarded the penalty.
With the increasing pressures on professional footballers at the business end of the season you can see why some players choose to con a referee; the likes of Young, Suarez and Januzaj are notable offenders in recent seasons. With this in mind the exploits of Aaron Hunt should be applauded, as rather than let the penalty be taken he realised the error of his ways, owned up to the referee and helped to reverse the decision.
Hunt commented afterwards: “Out of instinct, I wanted to provoke the penalty, but that was wrong. I struggled with myself a bit (to say something), but we don’t want to win any games like that, even if we are in a relegation battle”
[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TPjx1DMaEw[/youtube]
I’m not sure that has ever happened before but it will certainly give food for thought to footballers in the future. The cynic in me does ask if the score was 0-0 at the time, rather than 2-0, would he have been as quick to jump up and reverse the decision with the referee! However he did help reverse the decision and his conscious is all the clearer for it. I wonder how long it will take for a Premiership footballer to follow suit with the same sense of fair play. If Paolo di Canio can win a FIFA Fair Play award then anything is possible…
