Time to blow the whistle on players who dive

DIVING really is getting out of hand – and it must be eradicated.

During the weekend’s matches, there were some horrendous examples of players trying to con the officials.

First you had Marcus Rashford’s dive. Now I’m sorry, I really rate him highly as a striker, but that to me was cheating.

As a striker, I know that you can anticipate contact – us forwards are quicker and more responsive than defenders, whatever they might argue – but there’s a difference between feeling contact and going down, and just feigning it. That’s what Rashford did. Then you had Leroy Sane diving too, and also Lucas Leiva’s embarrassing tumble to the ground for Liverpool too.

Referees are being conned, and it’s time they stopped. I really think Andre Marriner guessed when he gave Rashford a penalty – he couldn’t see the incident – and that’s something you should never do.

But it’s time referees are given some help. Video technology must be introduced. It’ll only take a matter of seconds for fourth officials, or even an extra referee, to look at a screen with the game paused for five seconds, decide on an incident either way, and then make a call.

Then we’ll start getting big decisions right – and I mean big, match-changing decisions, not just blowing up for everything.

It would help referees and it would also rid our game of diving.

If a player is deemed to have dived, they should be retrospectively warned as well.

Then, if they repeat the offence, it should be a three-match ban as a minimum. That will then stop blatant cheating creeping further into the game. It needs to be stopped – and as soon as possible.