The FA announced today that they have approved new regulations, retrospectively banning players found guilty of diving for potentially two matches.
Every Monday, a panel consisting of an ex-player, ex-manager and an ex-match official will meet to review footage from the previous weekend for any possible offences.
Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher was quick to weigh in with his opinion on the news:
Twitter: More problems for Man Utd next season. https://t.co/6EG8hrdNEs (@Carra23)
The new offence will be called “successful deception of a match official”, and initially only be enforced for incidents resulting in penalties or opposing players being sent off.
The FA itself said bans will be applied: “where there is clear and overwhelming evidence to suggest a match official has been deceived by an act of simulation, and as a direct result, the offending player’s team has been awarded a penalty and/or an opposing player has been dismissed.”
The Daily Express lists 23 players who would have been banned so far this season for simulation – a list including the likes of ex-Reds Raheem Sterling and Christian Benteke, current Reds Lucas Leiva and Daniel Sturridge, and Manchester United’s world record signing Paul Pogba.
Fellow Manchester United player Ashley Young (picture above) has been booked twice for simulation, and been at the heart of numerous controversial incidents, including one act of simulation so bad it was labelled ‘an absolute disgrace” by Roy Keane.
