Arsene Wenger calls on FA to ban divers
1 Jan 2015 1:05 AM GMT
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has called on the Football Association (FA) to ban players who dive in order to rid the game of play acting to win free kicks or penalties. Diving is once again a hot topic in the Premier League after three Chelsea players, Cesc Fabregas, Diego Costa and Willian, were all booked for simulation this month.
Chelsea defenders Gary Cahill and Branislav Ivanovic have also recently been accused of diving by opposition managers with Blues boss Jose Mourinho countering that there was an agenda against players at his club. Wenger said the only way to solve the problem would be for the FA to take retrospective action against players who have clearly dived. “I’m against diving. We should punish it after the game. The problem will be to decide when it was obvious diving or not. That’s a big issue and sometimes it’s not obvious,” the Frenchman said.
“Punish only obvious cases but not mixed ones. You have to suspend the players, I don’t know how long. It depends. I am not a specialist in this kind of thing. But the only way the players will stop is if they feel they can get punished,” he added.
Chelsea defenders Gary Cahill and Branislav Ivanovic have also recently been accused of diving by opposition managers with Blues boss Jose Mourinho countering that there was an agenda against players at his club. Wenger said the only way to solve the problem would be for the FA to take retrospective action against players who have clearly dived. “I’m against diving. We should punish it after the game. The problem will be to decide when it was obvious diving or not. That’s a big issue and sometimes it’s not obvious,” the Frenchman said.
“Punish only obvious cases but not mixed ones. You have to suspend the players, I don’t know how long. It depends. I am not a specialist in this kind of thing. But the only way the players will stop is if they feel they can get punished,” he added.
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