lagos wrote:
The ball goes out of play you know it touched you last but you still raise your hand hoping for a throwing or a corner. Thats cheating and All players do it., Some more than others.
No, it's not a great post (sorry, lagos) - it's losing sight of proportions, and failing to see the difference between initiating-causing-creating (things that are entirely up to you, would not have existed without you) and events you merely take part in or view from the side (things that would exist whether it was you or another, and are not dependent on you).
Of course, strictly speaking there are a zillion things that would qualify as cheating (and if we don't look at "proportions" then all discrimination between them is redundant). But again - is that even remotely close to the spirit of the game? or better think that the game is close to life, and how we do and perceive things in life? I think the latter.
By the way, even in this last example, if we think about an imaginary situation where all refs are perfect (and so no one gets a better treatment regardless of what they do), then even this raising hand thing looks a bit pathetic. It sometimes looks pathetic even now (probably just because, in the bottom line, it is trying to gain advantage you don't really deserve).
Cheating has nothing to do with "doing all to win" - a winner spirit, cunning, etc. Henry's fast FKs were not "cheating" though some thought they were not fair, nor was passing a penalty kick, etc. But it's not even covered by "playing by the written rules" - the overmans/kanu goal was unfair, as was the Shakhtar goal some days ago, although nothing illegal happened in either. It's not "cheating", but in a way that's just what it is - it is as acceptable, it's the equivalent in meaning the same thing for the game: we take that on board means we are killing the game. We shouldn't have any of that.
