BY Football365.com

I've pretty much had it up to here with this ridiculous "holier than thou" diving stance people constantly take. My question is, why do we care? Let's consider some points about this:

1) This modern obsession with diving has only really reached a head of steam in the last few years, even though it was equally prevalent before hand. This is only conjecture, but I would suggest that it is a by-product of the whole Ronaldo hate fest that engulfed these shores a couple of years ago.

2) Granted it is cheating, but is it really any worse than other common forms of cheating that we somehow all accept, namely professional fouls, claiming a player that you fouled dived when he didn't (surely much worse than the old "waving of imaginary card", which is almost always justified), claiming it's your goal kick/corner/whatever when you know full well it wasn't, and little niggling fouls that the ref can't pick up on.

3) Speaking of those niggling fouls, this is where the majority of the confusion about diving sets in. "Going to ground easily" is not diving. This is what, for example, Ronaldo does most of the time. Strictly speaking, any illegal contact by the defender is a foul, correct? However, rarely will this be forceful enough to knock the attacker off his feet - and how often do you see a free kick given when the attacker has stayed up? Seldom. Therefore, when a foul's been committed, the only way a player can alert the ref is to go down. Granted it's not "manly", "British", or suitably stoic for some, but it's understandable and fair.

4) I don't care what people say, frankly, who wouldn't dive if they were desperate? Big cup game, 1-0 down, last minute, whatever, you're going down if you see the opportunity. If you like you can justify it to past injustices in the game, but fact is, you'll do what you have to. Anyone who denies this is a liar.

5) The worst thing is the double standards. In any given game you will get at least three occasions where the ref waves a player to get up, and let's the play continue. They (in his opinion) dived. No card. But when Rooney (to give the example du jour) does it, he's carded. The mailboxer who made the point about Huddlestone (i think...) just getting waved off got it spot on. Frankly bookings for dives are risky, because it's rarely obvious to the ref. An unpunished dive is much less harmful than an unwarrented booking.

So can we all just relax, and allow things to continue, see as this is the way it was, is and always will be. But that being said, sort out the booking nonsense. Maybe 2 dives = a booking? Cos frankly, if you booked every dive (or what you suspect/"guess" is a dive), it'd be a farce.

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