Stop With The Moral Nonsense
I can't believe there are so many blinkered idiots around. Football is big business. Managers lose their jobs on the slenderest of issues. Games are won and lost by the finest of margins. When a rival player dives he's a cheat. When one of your own players dive he was clever. Why don't we all just stop all of the moral bulls**t.

No-one is perfect and in this day and age, everyone is out to gain any advantage wherever they can, in football and in life. Please stop all this we're better than them because we're British crap. If your player had a chance to win the biggest prize with a bit of sly cheating you'd be more than happy for him to do it. If wining the World Cup rested on someone going down a bit easily you'd take that any day. I'm sure any manager would congratulate their player for keeping them in a job with a bit of cheating. It's all about keeping up with your rivals. If someone's doing it and you don't you can be morally upstanding all you like but you'll also be left behind.

It's up to the authorities to find a way to sort it out not the players. You can't blame them for finding loopholes in the laws or blind spots in the refs vision. It's all about taking every opportunity to win. They're paid big bucks to make their club a success. That's the bottom line.

Yes it's a shame that the gentlemanly side of the game has long gone. But take a look around you. It's been a long time since people thought of the traditional English gentleman in general. We're a bunch of fat, brainless, lager louts to the rest of the world. Times have changed. Accept it and move on.

Cheating is a part of football. Just like sensationalist headlines are there to goad people into reading and responding, and stories bear little resemblance to the truth in most rags because the media can get away with warping the facts. Just like our ridiculously inflated expectations mean managers come and go before most have had a chance to really make a difference at a club.

We're all to blame. And picking on Gerrard above anyone else just highlights our other failing as we love to build 'em up and knock 'em down. Sadly perspective is something very few people have nowadays.

Football is all about winning nowadays and the fans are the worst culprits of the lot. Some will even happily boo their own team if they haven't scored in 45 minutes. So sod off with your condemnation of English players cheating when you'd probably string them up if they did the honourable thing in favour of three points.

The real reason Ronaldo and his other non English divers gets it in the neck and the English guys get away lightly is that most little Englanders still think we're better than all of them (all in a very 'we're not racist honestly' way of course.) Well we're not, the world isn't perfect and football is a despicable world of too much money, too little brains and no ethics whatsoever. Get over it or go and play golf or snooker or something.
Sean Kelly

It's Not Just Gerrard Etc Etc
I am a Liverpool fan and yes I want to condemn Gerrard for his dive last night, it was shameful and is the one part of his game that he needs to improve. However, when opposing fans write him to call him all names under the sun as if he's the only player in the world who's ever dived it really ticks me off. Each of the supposed top 7 or 8 clubs in England all have well known divers within their ranks and, for some unknown reason some of them are actually English! Cashley and Joe Cole are divers...and rubbish at it. Ashley Young is a diver and is also rubbish at it. But whenever they dive, does it get a mention anywhere? No! so why is it the when Gerrard dives to gain one penalty does everyone suddenly go all up in arms about it.

Before people write in saying he's done it before...Sheffield United - there was contact which the ref saw = penalty, Villa last season - the ref gave a foul for what he saw not because of Stevie's reaction,it just so happened he still managed to bend it in the top corner from 25 yards. The game vs Blackburn where people say he dived more than once...did you actually watch the game? did you turn away each time there was contact on Gerrard? For those who did actually watch it, you'll know he was denied penalties wrongly.

So whilst everyone is so quick to criticise him, its important to remember that there are others close to him who are far worse.
Peter, Liverpool

Shall We Give Back The World Cup?
I have been reading with interest the e-mails against the notorious murderer Steven Gerrard (or so he's been treated). Either way, as I read through all the e-mails trying to make out he's worse than Hitler, I suddenly thought about something. I will direct you to Wembley Stadium, 1966, where England are drawing 2-2 with West Germany in the World Cup Final.

'Half-way through the first period of extra time, Hurst met a cross from Alan Ball and his shot on the turn hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced down to the goal line. The referee signalled for a goal and then, under pressure from the German side, consulted with the linesman, who confirmed the goal. Whether or not the ball actually crossed the line is still hotly disputed in Germany, but the over-riding rule is that the referee's decision is final, so it was a goal even if the ball didn't cross the line.'

Now, I seem to remember clips of Geoff Hurst celebrating the goal, even though he knew the whole ball did not cross the line. Does this make him a cheat, and thus our World Cup triumph of '66 null and void. Matt, WWFC, would you like to lose that World Cup too?