I think it’s an issue that really needs to be better addressed by the football associations.

Interesting topic this and one that just last week (in the Rangers and Aberdeen match) resulted in an innocent player being dismissed because the opponent had faked being ‘butted and went down like he’d been shot. Kyle Lafferty the Rnagers player who so blatently went down was subsequently fined by his club which was good to see, but as you rightly point out, the problem is so engrained in the game that it will be very difficult to eliminate.

I’ve never seen a player sent off for diving (I have for a second yellow) but never a straight red, but I think the issue for referee’s is that they often only see one side of the incident and rely on the assistant’s view assuming that he was watching the game.

Enter the video official debate……in the Lafferty incident, the video referee would have been able to have spotted this farce second time, thats probably a second or two, then add another second or two to transmit to the referee that it was a dive and that Lafferty should be booked or even in this case sent off for unsportsman like conduct. For the 5 or 10 seconds aftre the referee has blown his whistle, he can be speaking with the video official…. would it be a huge intringment on the game…. in this case, I dont think so.

Pressed to give a firm answer as to whether we could eliminate it or not from the game, I’d have to go with no, purely because i dont think managers and clubs have the balls to suspend a player for diving.