The players who will be victims of a case of cheating will have their red cards, not yellow cards, rescinded. (Source: Reuters)
In a much-needed move, English football authorities will crackdown on players who try to cheat referees by diving to earn a penalty or get an opponent sent off. But that would change starting Friday when England’s second-tier Championship games between Sunderland and Derby County and between Nottingham Forest and Millwall will be the first in which players can be retrospectively punished for two games if they are found guilty by video.
Diving has been a growing problem in English football. Most clubs were guilty of seeing their players try to cheat the referee at stages during the season with Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford, Manchester City’s Leroy Sane and Tottenham’s Harry Kane coming under the radar in a single weekend.
The move to go for retrospective punishment was announced in May to tackle the menace of diving with many players going unpunished during the game with many matches getting significantly affected due to it. The English FA will be charging the guilty players for “successful deception of a match official”. The regulation is already in force in Scotland and has been in the process over the year after feedback from players and officials.
The controversial decisions will be settled by a compliance team – in England a three-person panel consisting of an ex-player, an ex-manager and an ex-referee. All three must agree that there is a “clear and overwhelming case” for a charge.
Following their decision, if the player accepts the charge, he will be given an immediate two-match ban. Else, the case move to the FA independent regulatory commission that deals with all disciplinary issues. The players who will be victims of a case of cheating will have their red cards, not yellow cards, rescinded.
Last season, there were retrospective bans for Tyron Mings and Zlatan Ibrahimovic for clashes that were not picked up by officials in last season’s game between Bournemouth and Manchester United.
Despite the measure to bring about change and attempt at fairness, Sam Allardyce criticised it for having no provision to remove cards for players who were wrongly accused of diving. He also pushed for in-game video technology that has been in use during recent international games including the Confederations Cup and will be in use in the Bundesliga.
