The other dirty little secret of diving is this: many times, it’s the only way to get a legitimate foul called. I watched an MLS game last year where a defender bumped a forward who was running on to a through ball. The forward stumbled but stayed on his feet and the ball went out of bounds. Amazingly, the ref still pointed to the penalty spot. And it occurred to me that I didn’t know if I’d ever seen that before. Sure, the foul was legitimate and the penalty deserved. But 99% of the time, the ref will not call a foul unless the player goes to ground (99.9999999% if it’s a question of awarding a penalty).

So in our haste to send divers to the electric chair, let’s also demand that officials call legitimate fouls that don’t result in a player going to ground. If you want to discourage diving, reward players who stay on their feet!