Dock points from clubs to end diving

DAVID MOYES was moaning about “inconsistency” after Manuel Lanzini was banned for conning referee Graham Scott into awarding West Ham a penalty during last weekend’s game against Stoke City.

Who cares about inconsistency? Diving has become such a blight on the game, if there are innocents found guilty or guilty ones found innocent, so be it.

As long as the FA is trying to do something about it, that’s fine. But the trickiest aspect of the system is the punishment. Irons boss Moyes (left) will now lose Lanzini for the matches against Bournemouth and Newcastle – teams which Stoke might consider more realistic relegation rivals than West Ham.

Stoke suffered because the penalty was given and the crucial opening goal was scored in their defeat to West Ham. To add insult to injury, Bournemouth and Newcastle will now benefit from facing a Hammers team without its best player.

The obvious solution would be for VAR to call out the likes of Lanzini (above) on the spot, but that is a long way off.

In the meantime, maybe the Premier League should show some moral fibre and tell clubs whose players are found guilty of deceiving match officials a certain amount of times that they will be docked points.

Don’t hold your breath but it might stop them.