Does anyone actually call it cheating?
I think it's a piss take, but it isn't cheating. It would probably be referred to as such and more of a big deal if we were to do it more.
yes, including about six or seven posts up. bizarre take indeed. all i can say is that i wish more of our players were doing what darwin and mo are doing right now.
the only thing i find a pisstake is the structure that makes this all necessary. international players should have so much power if they properly collectivised, yet they are so disorganised they have so little.
we've seen it ourselves that the current structure discourages and actively fucks over the honest. whether its by PR assertions of dishonesty (see Gerrard and Sturridge) or nationalistic slurs and other shit slung (see Carragher and Ben White), or by threat of consequences for not playing that lead to health problems (see Naby Keita) or whether it's by following through on threats of action against players (see Matip).
how can it be that Matip being honest and up front by saying 'i want to retire from international football' could be maliciously used against him and his employer by some corrupt dickheads in another continent?!
the whole system is backwards. clubs should have more power than international FAs (all are filled with dodgy sorts wanting to profit from footballers labour, but at least clubs are proper businesses whereas national FAs are almost unanimously corrupt cartels). players should rightly have more say than either club or country on decisions to partake in international football too.
thats without even thinking about 'fans' too, particularly the kunckle draggers that international football attracts (see Salah). it's why everything has to be so carefully managed as PR (see the groundwork laid about Salah's upcoming rest, and the amusingly phrased excuse used to stop Nunez playing a spanish region in a friendly - apparently hamstrings have thoughts and feelings now!)
if players have to lie and make stuff up to look out for theirs and their employers interests, that is a pisstake. but its a pisstake they are the ones on the the receivng end suffering it. the system by design punishes honesty
