Has anyone any good ideas on how to stop cheating in football? It seems to be getting worse. Diving has been around for a while and now players can get yellow carded for it but rarely do. What is increasing even more is feigning a head injury. This is the only type of injury that will get a game stopped.

A match I watched last night saw a player fall down about 30 seconds after an incident holding their head while the ball was in play. The ref stopped the game then they were suddenly fine and ran off and then back on the pitch. The game restarted with an uncontested drop ball and the ball been played to the other end of the pitch and out for a throw-in. This meant an attacking move ended up with the attacking team pinned back in near their own corner flag.

If this isn't dealt with it could easily end up with players falling down clutching their head whenever the opposition gets in to a good position. What can be changed in the rules to prevent this? Head injuries can be very serious so obviously the game has to be stopped but how can cheats be dealt with as there is no way of actually proving if they are injured or not.

Maybe we should just let players get on with it, and rather than learning good defending they can learn good rolling about on the floor holding their head techniques.

video evidence after the games and bans being handed out- time consumeing but the only way to do it.

The players are bigger than the refs or the officials. That's the problem. Don't know how it can be solved but it is one of the main reasons I have stopped watching the game. Watch mainly Rugby League and some Rugby Union, but cheating is at an early stage of becoming "accepted practice" in both those games now too.

video evidence after the games and bans being handed out- time consumeing but the only way to do it.

But that only works at games which have cameras. Not many parks teams will ever be caught on video, whatever they might be doing.

There are ways of getting rid of cheating. Yellow and red cards for diving, marching the penalty back ten metres if there is backchat. Instant red for anyone who touches the ref, instant red for anyone who swears at the ref. Automatic five minutes rest period for anyone claiming a head injury. Automatic substitution of anyone stretchered off. But no-one has the guts to implement these things.

Automatic five minutes rest period for anyone claiming a head injury. Automatic substitution of anyone stretchered off. But no-one has the guts to implement these things.

These are good ideas, trouble is it can lead to punishing the team who have had a genuine injury, that turns out to be nothing.

One good way of killing the time-wasting injury fakes, would be to cut a football game to 30 minutes each way and stop the clock whenever the ball is dead.

No substitutions after 80 minutes to stop the gamesmanship in the added time by trying to eradicate the deliberate ploys to fragment play in that period.

An easy way to cut out diving would be to give the referee assistance through video replays. The fourth official could keep track and recommend a player is given a red card if he feels he has dived.

The FA should also give an instant 3 match ban to any player who has dived that was missed during the match. This would cut out diving almost overnight, as managers would be forced to ensure their players stay upright.

An easy way to cut out diving would be to give the referee assistance through video replays. The fourth official could keep track and recommend a player is given a red card if he feels he has dived.

The FA should also give an instant 3 match ban to any player who has dived that was missed during the match. This would cut out diving almost overnight, as managers would be forced to ensure their players stay upright.


The problem, again, is that only games which have cameras at them would be affected. The FA deals with sunday leagues, parks games, and junior football as well; not just the money-making end.

An easy way to cut out diving would be to give the referee assistance through video replays. The fourth official could keep track and recommend a player is given a red card if he feels he has dived.

The FA should also give an instant 3 match ban to any player who has dived that was missed during the match. This would cut out diving almost overnight, as managers would be forced to ensure their players stay upright.

A Portsmouth player won a penalty in the Reading game last weekend from which a goal was scored. No card was issued as it wasn't deemed a dive but I don't think anything has been done retrospectively? The give-away is the stiffening of a leg.
Pundits shared my view on 'MOTD' and 'Goals on Sunday'.

A Portsmouth player won a penalty in the Reading game last weekend from which a goal was scored. No card was issued as it wasn't deemed a dive but I don't think anything has been done retrospectively?


Nothing can be done retrospectively; if the referee deemed it a foul, the FA has no authority to reverse his decision. FIFA sees to that.

The FA can only ever get involved in incidents which a referee hasn't seen at all. Anything that's in his report, there is nothing they can do.

True, but this was what I thought A-G was advocating in a bid to cut-out cheating.

True, but this was what I thought A-G was advocating in a bid to cut-out cheating.

It's not an inherently bad idea, at that, but FIFA will have no part of it. Of course, if we're happy to pull out of all future World Cups, UEFA Champions' Leagues, European Championships and all other such tournaments, we can bring it in anyway.

I don't think it has much support. :P

I thought it was a good original post but basically I think football reaps what it sows. All the coaches must promote this behaviour in a bid to get an edge. Code13 mentions the demise in rugby - not unnoticed by myself - add cricket et al. All to do with money and the desperation to win.
I held the old FA badge but never used it outside schools as I didn't appreciate the football mentality. I enjoyed playing cricket, rugby and hockey - playing to win, but if you lost, you had a friendly drink with the opposition afterwards. Alas, that was amateur sport.

Rugby Union has tended to get round cheating by incorporating it in the rules - lifting in the line out being a fine example. Diving in football has been around since the '60's (unless Franny Lee really was fouled every time he went over in the box).

Trouble is with giving the ref video replays many incidents would need to be shown from 4 or 5 different angles (and several times as well) before a decision could be made which could take a few minutes and slow the game down no end.

Perhaps a better thing might be to respect the refs decision and not show every incident on TV 3 or 4 times in slow motion from four or five different angles - this has probably done as much if not more to undermine the refs authority as missing the odd dive.

How about taking away the massive financial rewards from players and clubs?

Rugby Union has tended to get round cheating by incorporating it in the rules - lifting in the line out being a fine example. Diving in football has been around since the '60's (unless Franny Lee really was fouled every time he went over in the box).

Trouble is with giving the ref video replays many incidents would need to be shown from 4 or 5 different angles (and several times as well) before a decision could be made which could take a few minutes and slow the game down no end.

Perhaps a better thing might be to respect the refs decision and not show every incident on TV 3 or 4 times in slow motion from four or five different angles - this has probably done as much if not more to undermine the refs authority as missing the odd dive.

A fine post that I agree with. We need to accept that the refs may make honest mistakes, but the desisions are given through his eyes alone. So if he thinks it is a penelty it is one, end of. I guess that of all the people on the pitch the refs make the least mistakes, apart from Poll who is and absolute...................

How about taking away the massive financial rewards from players and clubs?

This is one road I would agree with going down. Eg, Rangers have a Rewards policy at Ibrox. Players wages are based on how well or badly they play. I also think that FIFA should put a cap on maximum price allowed on a transfer with a possible look into setting a maximum wage limit.I also think that Managers should be allowed a fairer time limit on their contract so that they can't be sacked or leave within a certain time.
Money plays too big a part in football, where loyalty is fading every season. Bringing back the rule about how many foriegn players there are in a team would be a good thing as well. I think 6 would be a fair figure.

So how do you deal with players that get tapped on their shoulder and dive to the floor clutching their face then get carried off on a stretcher with an ice pack to their head? The likely outcome is the other team get a huge fine, points deduction and may even be thrown out of the competition. I am talking about Dida in the Celtic match last night if anybody hasn't seen it.

Obviously fans shouldn't come on to the pitch but he has clearly reacted like that to try and get Celtic a much heavier punishment than they deserve. Without having barrier keeping the fans in it is impossible to stop someone getting on the pitch.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/7027114.stm

I also think that FIFA should put a cap on maximum price allowed on a transfer with a possible look into setting a maximum wage limit.


Which will immediately be thrown out of court, and achieve nothing whatsoever.

Bringing back the rule about how many foriegn players there are in a team would be a good thing as well. I think 6 would be a fair figure.

Ditto.


Both ideas that would have been good if they were legal, but there is absolutely zero chance of either being implemented.

one possibly way to get around this is if a player goes down with a head injury then allow the physio to come on no matter where the injured player is on the pitch (unless the player is in an infringing position to the attack taking place). finally when the attack breaks down and the play is in an area of the pitch where no attacking advantage is present, then pause the game.

hope all this makes sense!