Just came from watching the UCL...sigh.

I'm not complaining about the outcome, it was clear Barca were the better team, but I am going to complain about a tactic that both teams used to great effect all game long. Between watching the women's friendly world cup send-off games and MLS for the last two weeks (aka, no Euro soccer) the UCL final brought my attention back to diving.

Look, I get that you want that call. But flopping around like a fish is just poor class. Exhibit A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWgFthufKi8

But this morphs into something else that is even more annoying. Since referee's make a call when a player goes down, even actual fouls are turned into faking a broken leg. "We all KNOW that was a foul, but hell, if I fake like my tibia is broken, he might get a yellow card! AHAHAHA"

That is stupid. And players get away with conning the referee game after game because there is NO accountability whatsoever. Once in a blue moon we see a yellow card for diving. Even that wouldn't dissuade the attacker, because forwards rarely get yellow cards to begin with, so it's not like it will make a difference.

There needs to be some kind of accountability system, a fine, suspension, I don't care. Just get diving out of the game I love, so I don't have to watch a European final with at least 5-10 minutes out of the 90 watching certain players acting like they should spend the next month in a hospital. One my friends broke his foot and twisted his ankle in the same tackle, and he made less of a meal of it than half the players on the pitch today.

I hate diving.

Lets kill all divers.

They're just trying to make a big deal out of it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diving\_(association_football)

I think every single team particiaptes in diving or exaggerating fouls. It has sadly become part of them game. The only way to really erradicate this would be through harsh punishments to clubs or players.

I absolutely hate diving... exaggerating is one thing, diving is another.

@raimondo90 That's exactly the problem. Diving and exaggerating fouls is practically required to get a call nowadays. To all purposes, learning how to fake an injury/dive is a helpful tool in today's game. It is my opinion that that is wrong.

Exaggeration of fouls is normal now, but there is a limit to this as well. Exaggeration to the point where someone clips your ankles and you fall to the ground (when you could have just stayed on your feet) is acceptable because you have been fouled. However, exaggeration to the point where someone clips your ankles and you fall to the ground and roll around six times over is absolutely unacceptable. It makes you look like a clown, shames your team, and distorts the referee's decisions. I remember only seeing one such instance in the final tonight, and it was by Neymar.

Diving is completely unacceptable, but I didn't notice any tonight. Suarez is the only player in Barcelona or Juventus who legitimately dives, and he didn't do anything like that tonight.

Didn't noticed that Busquets dive in first half?

@Quikzyyy

The one where Vidal got booked? I consider that an exaggeration. Busquets definitely got clipped, but nowhere near enough to make him fall. That was an extreme exaggeration. It would be a dive if there was no contact.

I think everyvone hates diving...

don't forget your favorite player that goes on holiday on boat last week ,

Suarez didnt dive, he landed in a really painful position and was limping 10 minutes after.

Barcelona seems to have less dived than the last 2 or 3 years...its was so annoying.

Yeah...again today. We saw Benteke dive. Look at this video

Sure, there was a slight contact between Delaney's knee and Benteke's heel but he went down too easily for a big guy like him. Can't really blame him though. It is at the last stoppage time of the game and he made the most of it.

Even before you start the video, look at Benteke's face!!!!!! haha What I would like to see, and it should not change how the game is called on the pitch right now, is an official team that reviews each game, make a call to penalize divers after the fact. I big fine or a suspension through accumulation or something. This will let the Refs keep their own perspective of things, but start to deter divers more and more.

I hate this part of football with a passion and lose so much respect for players who do it. I am talking diving, not getting fouled and going down. Screw that cop out "it is part of the game" because it is not. It has been allowed to carry on into comical heights and something needs to happen to start deterring those who use this as a tactic.

I dont know how hard would it be for the FA to do something about this stuff. Just like they've done with cases like Suarez biting Ivanovic they could perfectly hand out sanctions to this players for diving. It is already been implemented in Mexico... So no excuse for the use of technology for after-match analysis.

I guess it's slight but you can see his foot bend suggesting it was harder than it looks. There is no player who wouldn't go down after that, imo. It's from behind as well.

@Gustavo

The problem with that is that Delaney pulled out of the tackle. That in itself implies that whatever contact Benteke felt wasn't even close to bringing him down.

I do agree with you, every player would go down there. We're not picking on Benteke specifically. We're picking on the system that allows that dive to happen, and the game's outcome to change because of it.

He pulled out but he slipped and slid and make contact. But maybe I shouldn't talk about this since I'm clearly biased.

Personal opinion that might sound extreme should be a big punishment.

If players get caught and get expelled for 1 month from the pitch, diving would be reduced a lot. It has been many incidents that filled me with anger but I give sympathy to some referee's that get it wrong sometimes. I mean some players are like real life actors.

Just for the banter those 2 actually deserves an Oscar. It was almost a match changer and Dani Alves is a master at this. This should be penalized to the extreme. [Not picking on Barcelona but this one and the Busquets one had bring so much hate to that team]. For me Diving is the disgrace of the sport.

Before you start picking on me I know Diego Costa does that crap as well and I myself do not approve it and get angry at him.

Regarding @Joze's comment:

Busquets' one is one of the most ridiculous dive caught on tape, but Luiz did the same and bunch of others...

Same goes for Alves, but let's face it here, Pepe was not a role model and a pure victim (he improved a lot since Carlo though)... Pepe would probably break a few legs, and got away with it a lot.