Why Diving in Futbol isn't Always wrong

Many might disagree with this post about why diving isn't always wrong. Okay, don't get me wrong diving isn't something a player should be proud but it does create chances for your team in critical situations. In 2014 World Cup round of 16 match, Mexico faced Netherlands. While a lot of people may have predicted a comfortable win for the Dutch, Mexico took them down to the wire and were threatening to win the game. In the 92nd minute, Dutch wizard winger Arjen Robben took matter in to his own hands and will his team to win victory.

Robben streaked down the right flank, blowing past a shell shocked Diego Reyes before scampering into the penalty area near the touchline. Every person in the Estadio Castelao knew what was going to happen next, Robben would cut to his left. Robben has an indescribable, unstoppable quality that makes his play all together predictable and inevitable. Hoary old Rafa Marquez could see Arjen Robben’s next move, even though he was powerless to stop it. Instead, he clipped the spritely Dutchman, who spread his arms and launched into a balletic swan dive. As Robben crashed to the ground, so did El Tri’s hopes and dreams: Klass-Jan Huntelaar’s successful penalty kick sealed their fate.

After the game, Robben admitted that he dove which later made headlines. My point is that if Robben hadn’t dove in the box, the Dutch were looking at a defeat because Mexico were dominating. Can you blame Robben for diving? Maybe, in my opinion he willed his team to victory that day by doing whatever was necessary.

Styles of play and Diversity

The world of professional soccer provides an ideal testing ground that allows us to sidestep many of the problems. First, soccer teams are engaged in the same pursuit to score goals and win games. The benefits of a diverse talent pool will have the same theorized benefit for every team. This differs dramatically from business analyses that must compare widely diverse sectors where talent and creativity are employed very differently in the production cycle. 

The market for professional players provides a clear indication of the relative talent of individual players their transfer price and salary. Wage is related directly to productivity and is not obscured by seniority or other non-market influences. This allows us to statistically separate the effect of talent from diversity.

Styles of play (attacking versus counterattacking), defensive tactics ( man-to-man, pure zone), strategies for set pieces (free kicks/corner kicks), and even the organization of players on the field differ remarkably across countries. The benefits of diversity notwithstanding, there are obviously costs associated with hiring players from multiple countries. For example, a multinational soccer team can lead to increasing communication errors on the pitch. In addition, players’ cultural and political differences may impose considerable integration costs on the team, both on and off the pitch.

Baseball is in need of black players

Jackie Robinson, who became the league’s first African-American player on April 15, 1947 has his number 42 retired by every MLB (Major League Baseball) team. Robinson’s entry to the league led the way to integrated teams and a steady rise in the number of professional black baseball players. However, in recent years, there has been growing concern about the decreasing numbers of black players in the league.

                                
The share of black MLB players reached a high of 18.7% in 1981, According to the Society of Baseball Research. In 2014, 8.3% on opening day rosters were black. Before the most recent decade’s decline, the last time baseball had such a small share of black players was 1958.

As the number of black players has decreased, baseball has seen a rising of white players. In 2012, the percentage of white ballplayers 63.9% increased to levels last seen in 1995, when 64.5% of players were white. Historically, the share of white players has been shrinking since the color barrier was broken, bottoming out at 60.3% in 2004. Since then, the percentage of white players has trended upward. 

Major League Baseball’s racial diversity today roughly mirrors that of the U.S. population. In 2012, whites comprised about the same share of the population (63%) as they did in Major League Baseball, according to the most recent comparable data. By contrast, Hispanics were over represented in baseball, comprising 26.9% of players and 17% of the U.S. population. (When Jackie Robinson debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, less than 1% of players were Latino.)

Diversity in American Sports

If you look around in all American sports, not many minority coaches are hired. In 2013, not one minority coach was hired in the NFL, even with eight teams looking for new head coaches to lead their franchises in the right direction.

This blog takes a look at NFL when compared with other major American sports. The Rooney rule in came into play in 2003, when the Pittsburgh Steelers chairman Dan Rooney, who pushed the league to enforce every team to interview at least one minority candidate every time there is a coaching or general manager opening.

To be honest, it's kind of unfair to put the blame on the entire league when every team has the right to hire the best coach, no matter what his ethnicity or cultural heritage is.

NFL teams, like teams in every single American sport, have the responsibility to give their players and fans the best available coach out there. With that being said, it's tough to disregard that the "best available coach" is always a white guy. This country is made up of mostly white people, but the NFL and other sports league are not.

Some suggest the success of one minority coach can lead to greater opportunities for other minority coaches. I don't know if this is entirely true. I mean would people sit there and say, "Well he's black, and the black guy on the other team is a good coach, so let's hire this guy because  his skin color is the same?"