News · From the live show
Fake it or get no whistle: football is now played for TV
The panel debates whether Hancko was right to stay down for a minute
Alberto Pérez and Rubén Uría debate gamesmanship in the VAR era
Alberto Pérez argues that footballers are now almost actors who have to make a foul obvious for it to be reviewed. Rubén Uría goes further: these days, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Following the penalty won by Hancko, Alberto Pérez puts forward an uncomfortable idea: for better or worse, football is now played for television. For anyone to look at an incident, there has to be a sign that something has happened, so the footballer is almost an actor who has to make it clear he has been hit. In that sense, he believes Hancko did the right thing by staying down for a minute.
Rubén Uría takes it further. This is not the Old Testament football they grew up with; today, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, both in front of the microphones and on the pitch, where you have to be streetwise. And he comes out with a line he himself describes as terrible: either you fake it or you don't get the whistle.
Pérez clarifies that there is no need to fake anything, but you do need to make it obvious that something has happened so the cameras go there, because that is how the game is set up now.