The EFL play-offs are great, but the cheating needs to stop

Wembley Stadium, the venue for the EFL play-off finals. Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images.Wembley Stadium, the venue for the EFL play-off finals. Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images.
Wembley Stadium, the venue for the EFL play-off finals. Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images.
​​They have caused much misery for Peterborough United in the last two seasons, but the play-offs remain one of the great introductions to English football.

​​Seasons are kept alive, while great stories develop. Winning promotions this way is the best way, although it’s infinitely more stressful.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Good luck to Bolton and Oxford United in the League One final today, but mostly to Bolton who didn’t indulge in what has become the bane of professional football this season, well not in their two games against Posh at least.

It’s laughably described as ‘game management’ by the perpetrators and their acolytes in the media, but it becomes ‘cheating’ according to the same people when it’s conducted against their own side. I know where I stand and I can’t recall a single instance of the team I support indulging in such extreme amateur dramatics this season.

We’ve started guessing games in the Posh media camp as to when the opposition goalkeeper will sit down and ask for treatment he doesn’t need to give his side a breather and the chance for a tactical chat on the sidelines with coaches.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It’s irritating and boring. It’s anti-football and just plainly dishonest. Every time football’s authorities introduce a rule with the best of intentions, teams find a way to exploit it.

This season a player receiving treatment has to leave the field for 30 seconds after he’s been miraculously cured in an attempt to cut down on time wasting, but goalkeepers are exempt so they are the ones instructed to sit down by coaches who find it easier to disrupt the opposition than they do to create attractive playing styles.

It’s the same with head injuries. Of course a game should be stopped if there’s a possible concussion injury, but I would guess 90% of the time players fake it, especially if the opposition is threatening to counter attack. If they feel the slightest brush down they go down, sometimes holding a different body part to the one where contact occurred.

It’s embarrassing and it isn’t called out often enough by those with the loudest voices.

News you can trust since 1948
Follow us
©National World Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.Cookie SettingsTerms and ConditionsPrivacy notice