Dirty play in soccer. What are players doing to get wins?

One famous proverb says that all is fair in love and war. It might be applicable to every team sport, and soccer isn’t an exception. A dirty play is always on the brink of breaking the rules, and it makes rivals and fans feel angry. It is certainly not respected, but it helps to win, and victory is the ultimate goal of any athlete. Dirty play in soccer below.

Spying session

Marcelo Bielsa is an ex-player and a current coach of Leeds United. Journalists have called his dirty trick in 2019 spying, and the Leeds’ coach has accepted the blame of it. Bielsa sent one of his men to observe the training session of their opponents Derby United. This trick is legal for sure, and it gives a tactical advantage, but it is absolutely unacceptable from an ethical point of view.

“Hold my beer” – said the Honduras soccer team. They used one of the military drones to spy on the training of their Frenchmen opponents. Some of the players had noticed it and tried to shoot it down with a soccer ball. Rumors said it was their opponents from Honduras, but nobody was actually blamed for it.  

Absurd simulation

This is one more kind of dirty play soccer is known for. When any minor touch from an opponent can cause a player to fall on the ground and start crying in agony is a truly questionable scene. A degree of stupidity and absurdity went beyond any boundaries when in 2005 an MSV Duisburg coach Norbert Meier gave Köln’s player Albert Streit a headbutt, but suddenly fell and made the referee believe that it was Streit who actually hit him. Streit was sent off with a red card. The curtains were closing.

Victory no matter what

Despite all said, you cannot call any damaged player a pretender. There are rough players, and they are trying to harm their opponents as much as possible. It might look like the verge between soccer and martial arts is absent. Carlos Bilardo was a true pro in what you call a rough play. We cannot call him anything but a crazy man. As a player, he used to affix needles to his boots to injure his rivals.

After Bilardo become the coach of Argentina`s national team, he taught his wards everything about this dirty play. They did rub their hands with a chilly extract and tried to poke their opponents in the eyes during the game. It was during the World Cup in 1990. Argentina won the Brazilian national team surprisingly easily back then. Fifteen years later, Bilardo confessed that he had ordered tranquilizers to be mixed into the opponents` water.

Conclusion

The notion about war doesn`t look so harmless right now, does it? Some of the dirty plays shown above might seem to be beyond the line of good and evil. These unethical and despicable acts show that people sometimes will do anything to achieve their goals. It doesn`t mean that the ways are always clean and decent.

What do you think about these dirty tricks? Is the victory achieved in this way real? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Also, you can read about The most horrible soccer players’ injuries.