Just when you thought a footballer had reformed from one line of misconduct they go and start something else controversial.

El had Diouf had reformed from his spitting days took a dive in the Bolton Blackburn game to win a penalty which resulted in a goal for Bolton. The game is stillongoing but TV replay showed it was not a penalty and he would have been booked for sure.

Yep, he clearly tripped himself up. I can't blame the ref in this instance because it was a good bit of acting from Diouf.

The cheating swine should be charged IMO and that goes for anyone else who tries to gain a penalty when no contact is made. Only then might it teach players to be honest and fair.

Why has Diouf been scapegoated for both spitting and diving?

He is far from the worst diver in the Premiership, cheating of this sort happens in every Premiership match - in fact most professional footballers would probably accept it as "gamesmanship" and not even use the c- word.

I personally think that the only way diving will be stopped if referees adopt a "guilty until proved innocent" line - ie only give free kicks when they are 100% certain that a foul has been comitted - in my opinion it is far better to deny legitimate penalties than to reward diving.

Originally posted by Yodameister
Why has Diouf been scapegoated for both spitting and diving?

He is far from the worst diver in the Premiership, cheating of this sort happens in every Premiership match - in fact most professional footballers would probably accept it as "gamesmanship" and not even use the c- word.

I personally think that the only way diving will be stopped if referees adopt a "guilty until proved innocent" line - ie only give free kicks when they are 100% certain that a foul has been comitted - in my opinion it is far better to deny legitimate penalties than to reward diving.

Yep, there are a lot of others at it.

*cough* Michael Owen in '98 and 2002 *cough*

Yes, I think the best two divers in England were Beckham and Owen and now they are both playing for Real Madrid - coincidence?

I don't doubt other players do it, and probably one of the worst for diving are V.Nistlerooy, Pires and Rooney in the league at the minute. I don't thin Diouf has been scapegoated for it but he certainly has been in the news a lot more over the past few weeks.