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“[Often] a guy fakes an injury, and he acts as if it’s the end of the world, and then after you give him the foul he then flies up and kicks the ball.

“That guy should be sent off, and he should be sent off for five minutes.” (Jack Warner FIFA Vice President)

Jack Warner is a strange character, one who has been accused of various corruption charges, and this latest suggestion just smacks of real stupidity. Anyone who states that ‘Sin Bin’s work in Rugby’ is missing the point. How would this work? Presumably the decision on whether a player simulates will either rest with the referee or a fourth official, and given that referee’s far too rarely dish out cautions for the offence then they are even less likely to send them off for a few minutes for the same offence.

It is very simple to resolve the diving issue. It should be done retroactively, with a panel adjudicating on offences and handing out Bans on the basis of either repeated offences or singular offences that warrant a Ban in their own right. I am against any stoppages within the game itself as this will simply serve to slow the game down and before you know it we will have a game as stop/start at NFL or NBA.

People are also more likely to be able to judge simulation when viewed with hindsight without having to make a split second judgement. Pretty soon when players start being banned for a few games they will learn to cut out the swan dives. UEFA was on the right path when they issued the ban for Eduardo for his ludicrous tumble against Celtic, and whilst yes he isn’t a repeat offender, this incident and the resultant punishment (albeit successfully appealed against) is the right mode to deal with this most irritating of offences.

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Arsenal striker Eduardo has been banned for two games by Uefa for diving to win a penalty against Celtic last week.
The Croatia international was found guilty of deceiving referee Manuel Gonzalez as he fell under the challenge of goalkeeper Artur Boruc.
Arsenal, leading 2-0 on aggregate at the time, went on to win the two-leg tie 5-1 and progress into the Champions League group stages.
Eduardo will miss his side’s matches against Standard Liege and Olympiakos.
Arsenal have three days to appeal against UEFA’s decision.
But the club will wait for more information on the disciplinary panel’s verdict before deciding whether to try and overturn the forward’s suspension for the matches on 16 September and 29 September respectively.

“We have been informed that we will receive a ‘reasoned decision’ from UEFA by Thursday. Once we receive Uefa’s rationale, we will make a decision on the next steps,” a club statement read.
“We have been deeply frustrated by the perfunctory and apparently arbitrary process that Uefa has followed in this instance.
“We believe it is imperative that Uefa’s explanation for its decision provides clear and comprehensive standards that will be consistently enforced.”
The incident provoked a furious response from Boruc and other Celtic players at the time. (BBC Sport)

Look, I am not an idiot who so easily lets his affiliations sway him. I am an Arsenal fan through and through and I can admit that Eduardo dived, it was obvious. However it is nothing we don’t see again and again and whilst I am all for banning offenders by operating in this manner UEFA has opened a large can of worms that they will dearly wish they haven’t taken a tin opener to.

Repeat offenders should be punished for their continual Diving antics but to punish someone so severely for just one incident will set a precedent that many could well end up doing more harm than good. What happens for instance if in the next game a deliberate dive is seen by the whole world and there ISN’T a ban? It will look like double standards.

The act of a dive is a very subjective one and therefore punishing one offence can be a very tricky prospect. Much better to start taking note of repeat offences by one player and then hit that individual with a ban that will make him think twice about doing so again. You can have a retroactive yellow card handed to a player after a match and then after two or three a player can be given a one match ban. That would seem a much more reliable away to deal with a problem that goes far deeper than just one poorly timed fall to the ground.

Also does such a rule as used by UEFA exist in the Premier League? There needs to be some consistency in the way the game polices itself otherwise you will get players trying one thing in one competition whilst behaving in another manner when back in their domestic league.

I am confident that the club will appeal but equally confident that, like most appeals, it will fail. It seems fairly easy to implement some post match officiating system that seeks to weed out the real culprits who time and again try to con the referee. Not necessarily always in such dramatic fashions as to fling yourself to the floor in the penalty area, its those players who fall at the merest mention of a tackle all over the park who are equally in need of punishment for a dive is a dive wherever it takes place and should be treated as such.

It’s time the game did its best to rid the game of simulation but I am afraid that the way UEFA has acted is doing more harm than good.

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Rangers have fined Kyle Lafferty for feigning injury in an incident that led to Aberdeen’s Charlie Mulgrew being sent off on Saturday.
The forward, who has made a public apology, fell clutching his face after he and Mulgrew had gone head to head during Rangers’ 2-1 victory at Ibrox.
“It was something I should not have done and I deeply regret what happened,” he told Rangers’ website.
“I will make a personal apology to Charlie Mulgrew.”
Lafferty says that the Aberdeen defender, whose club is to lodge an appeal to the Scottish FA, should not have been sent off. (BBC Sport)

This is good news and about time too! For too long the game has not aptly punished those who play act or dive on the field of play. Anyone who has seen Kyle Lafferty’s reaction can do so by CLICKING HERE.

I have to admit that the behaviour of footballers has reached such a proportion that it really does need to be nipped in the bud. It seems a minute does not pass that doesn’t see a player pretend to be fouled or overreacting at any given moment or appealing for a decision that is so clearly not even in question. I am not sure what can be done to stop these now general practices as they have become so ingrained in the game but it is good to see the Glasgow side take something of a stand.

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With this in mind, I find myself wincing for United fans as I hear what falls out of that seemingly fearless jaw in the build-up to Wednesday’s Champions League Final:

Sometimes he goes in very strong, and sometimes he pretends he is very weak. He plays with your mind and tries to make you think about the next tackle.

He can pretend he fell down to win a penalty, but referees know that. The Champions League final is a big game and I’m sure the ref will know his job.

Will there be a repeat of Drogba’s match-winning performance or do you think that enough high-profile criticism about one aspect of his game is enough to put him off?