Buying Penalties

Just watched MOTD and after the Wigan v Arsenal game Hansen stated that Walcott was "entitled to go down" for the penalty as there was contact, albeit minimal. In fact contact looked no more than the pressure a fly landing on your leg would exert.

Surely for a foul to be committed any contact as to be enough to cause you to fall over? I hate this aspect of the game which to me is ruining it, yet it seems to be par for the course especially in the Prem which has clearly been influenced by what goes on in European leagues. Why is it the better the players are the more cheating seems to be accepted? For all the qualities the Prem has, if this is the type of game we can look forward to then I can wait.

Rant over. Any views?

The mistake that the Wigan player made was keeping his hands down so it looked to the ref that he was using force to stop Walcott. I've played as a left back before so this is an issue I've had to talk about a lot with mates but my theory always was that if you stop the player getting into the box then you don't have to worry about it.

You just can't be all over a player or put physical pressure on him once he's in the box. That's why the penalty box was created, to make goal mouth action intense. I'm not a great advocate of players going down when there's no contact or contact that doesn't affect their stability on their feet. I think the pen yesterday was a pen simply because the Wigan players in the box got into such a mess that they gave the situation on a plate for Walcott to go down. All Walcott was doing was punishing appalling defending from Wigan.

The mistake that the Wigan player made was keeping his hands down so it looked to the ref that he was using force to stop Walcott. I've played as a left back before so this is an issue I've had to talk about a lot with mates but my theory always was that if you stop the player getting into the box then you don't have to worry about it.

You just can't be all over a player or put physical pressure on him once he's in the box. That's why the penalty box was created, to make goal mouth action intense. I'm not a great advocate of players going down when there's no contact or contact that doesn't affect their stability on their feet. I think the pen yesterday was a pen simply because the Wigan players in the box got into such a mess that they gave the situation on a plate for Walcott to go down. All Walcott was doing was punishing appalling defending from Wigan.

I know what you're saying but I don't think that just because defenders get into a mess it gives the right for a player to fall down without the means to actually cause it. Surely a penalty is for a foul, not for bad defending?

Yes, a fair point Carpe Diem. Like I said, I don't back players going down when they don't have their footing or stability affected by the challenge but the way Beaujesour went into the back of Walcott it did seem that he had an impact on Walcott's rhythm. It's one that will divide opinion for sure.