Your Diving me mad!

Ever since the Italians introduced it in the 90's, diving has become a point of discussion throughout the world of football. It's something which every football fan can agree on; diving is wrong. It is blatant cheating. 

Take Victor Moses, Chelsea wing-back. He was given a second yellow card in this years FA Cup Final, which Arsenal won 2-1, for diving in the hope of getting a penalty for his efforts. After the game, the Blues' manager Antonio Conte defended Moses claiming that the Nigerian was just tired, 'Moses is an honest player and if he did this it’s only because he was tired. He didn’t want to cheat the referee.' 

Maybe its just me, but is it not bizarre that the manager was unable to see that his player dropped to the floor after no contact from the defender? There is the possibility that Conte did see the dive and is merely defending Moses. Although that would be a perfectly rational response, in such a high profile sporting event and considering the outcome of the match, shouldn't Conte have just said his player was in the wrong?

In a situation like this, the referee, Sir Anthony Taylor must take a lot of the credit for not only noticing the diving but punishing it regardless of the circumstances. Which leads me on to the next part of why diving is still in football. There have been multiple times where the referee has been at fault for not acknowledging a dive or punishing it. It seems that they aren't able to see that 'forcing the contact' and diving is the same thing. Just because there has been contact between the attacker and defender does not mean it isn't a dive. There have been countless occasions of minimal contact in the penalty area that have proven to be game changing.

However, the referee shouldn't have to be criticised for not making the right decision every time, after all, they are only human. In the matches, it isn't the officials who dive, its the players. And so fault should lie with them.

So why do the players escape being slaughtered by pundits and angry fans on the BBC5Live 606 phone-in every Saturday?
There seems to be a belief that the players are just "trying their hardest" to win and that they will do "anything" for it. To me, that is just taking pity on the players. There are a lot of footballers who are there for the money and couldn't care about anything else.

Despite how frustrated referees make us, there should be some form of acknowledgement for how tough their job is.

However, I'm sure as football fans, we all hope diving is stamped out from football as quickly as possible. Whether that is done through stronger officiating or through the clubs, I don't think anybody cares as long as it is gone.