Shameless Pepe’s killing the dream

GOOGLE “Pepe dive” and the search engine as good as answers you back. Which one, for heaven’s sake? A personal favourite came against Atletico Madrid in 2014, a sort of backwards flip after an opponent tilts his head in Pepe’s direction.

There is another against Atletico Madrid in 2016, this one actually from a prone position. He is on the deck, but, with a defender hardly near him, convulses like a freshly caught fish on dry land. Even for Pepe, it is a minor classic. But to be world-class, you have to do it on the biggest stage and Pepe duly obliged against Morocco.

His play-acting was that blatant, it was laughed at. But what is no laughing matter is that Pepe (below) will still be lining up for Portugal against Iran tomorrow.

In the immediate aftermath of the incident, I suggested FIFA should play the incident on a loop while he is warming up. But the shaming ploy has long since proved to be useless in Pepe’s case.

How can it work when he has none? Retrospective bans for trying to get an opponent sent off – because that is what Pepe does habitually – is the only way forward. At a World Cup, you are not only trying to get a fellow player sent off, you are trying to ruin his dream. And that is unforgivable.

AS the first week or so of the World Cup passed without any serious off-thefield incidents, I was interviewed by a Russian journalist who tried to get me to say her country does not have a problem with football hooligans.

It does... but even their skulls are not numb enough to think about spoiling Vladimir Putin’s party.