Italians dive the most - it’s official!
The stereotypical view of an Italian footballer is of a diver, who tries to cheat and influence the referee. Information Builders’ alternative World Cup statistics confirm this view. According to the company, Italian players have dived 25(!) times in their 4 matches (more than any other country), have tried tried to bully the referee 4 times (2nd behind Croatia) and have faked injury 7 times (again ranked 2nd). England fans, who tend to believe that their team does not dive will be surprised to hear that their heroes are hardly squeaky clean, being ranked 14th of the 32 teams in the diving stakes.
The stats also show that cheating doesn’t pay - the Italians have been punished by being the victims of the most wrong offside decisions. Finally, they may also explain why S&M capitulated so spectacularly against Argentina - their lack of patriotism: 31 of their players failed to sing the national anthem in their 3 matches, more than any other nation.
The information is slightly misleading using cumulative numbers rather than averages per match which would have been more accurate given that the teams will end up playing different numbers of matches. However, it still makes for interesting and entertaining reading!
