Thursday 18 May

The FA Approves Retroactive Diving Bans

To the delight of many who feel football has taken a turn for the worse with increasing fervency of diving and faking injuries, The Football Association has approved a plan to bring about match bans for players caught for deliberate diving. The plan was supported by the EFL, the Professional Footballers’ Association, and the Premier League.

Certainly ‘diving’ has been a concern for a long time, and is one with mounting pressure heaped on the FA and other governing bodies to take a hard stance to help to eradicate the problem. Recent incidents in high profile matches including Harry Kane and Marcus Rashford have brought the problem to a fever pitch.

As FIFA has adopted a more technologically-friendly direction, their willingness to show some change might open the door to adopting a similar policy at the international level.

The statement from the FA reads as follows;

“A new offence of ‘Successful Deception of a Match Official’ will be in force from the start of the 2017-18 season, after the regulation change was approved by The FA Council today [18 May] and following a period of consultation with stakeholders over the past few months.

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 FA will be able to act retrospectively under its Fast Track system.

In accepted and/or proven cases of simulation and/or feigning injury, the offending player would receive a two-match suspension.”