That's because there is no retrospective action. Go back 20-30 years things where dirty but in a completely different way (fights etc) but what was so popular in the leagues of Southern Europe became popular because it's hard for a ref in real time to make a fair call.
If they gave 3 match bans for every dive (obvious dives I mean I get there are borderlines and exaggerated falls hard to judge) then this crap would go away. The weird thing is players get reputations and in the long run it stops them getting penalties. Bale did a bit of diving in the early parts of his career then later on when there was genuine fouls refs thought he was just play acting.
The FA will retrospectively punish players for bad tackles but it has no balls on play acting and it ruins the game and sets the example that cheats prosper and win. All of the cheating in the game is at the door of the FA, UEFA and FIFA and their spinelessness.
Yeah, agreed. Vardy has a reputation, Jon "the idiot" Moss decides that he dives against West Ham, Vardy sent off (particuarly galling that the week after he let an Woolwich dive go with no booking despite there being no contact at all) - but consequently Vardy has been much more circumspect. A bit like the "holding in the box" stuff - (which our defenders interpreted as "you're not allowed to defend corners anymore" for a couple of weeks). Once the punishment is applied consistently and fairly, the problem goes away. I have no idea why the ruling bodies are so weak on this. Perhaps it's because it's so endemic on the continent that they just feel they can't stop it now. But of course they could.
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