Every team has their own offender, but even Cristiano Ronaldo has cleaned up his act. Chelsea have a number of culprits. In fact, you would be hard pushed to find a single club that doesn’t have a player who goes to ground on cue should anyone dare tackle him.

When is something going to be done about the cheats who are ruining the game? Once again, a blatant dive has a huge effect on a crucial game and, perhaps more importantly, costs me a win at the bookies.

When Florent Malouda flung himself into the air like some kind of flailing seagull and fooled sorry-excuse-for-a-ref Rob Styles, he could have shaped the entire season. Will his actions be punished? I very much doubt it, but it’s time to rid football of this cancer.

‘When Florent Malouda flung himself into the air like some kind of flailing seagull and fooled sorry-excuse-for-a-ref Rob Styles, he could have shaped the entire season’


OK, it is slightly unfair to apportion all the blame to the Hampshire official, although his performance throughout the 90 minutes was nothing short of scandalous. The blame for the offence in question lies squarely on the French international’s shoulders. Jose Mourinho could have come out after the match and taken a stand, much like Stuart Pearce did after Bernardo Corradi was sent off when he picked up a second yellow for diving in last November's Manchester derby. Pearce, then Man City boss, told Match of the Day: "I'm not gonna give you some bulls**t reason about why my player went down – I'm gonna have a word with him about why he has done it and make sure he doesn't do it again."

Mourinho could have made a difference. All he had to do was hold his hand up, criticise his player and maybe then help to turn the tide against these cheats. Liverpool were rightly incensed when they were robbed of three points by the actions, Rafa Benitez and Steven Gerrard were scathing in their post-match comments, while the ref was nowhere in sight. Wouldn’t it be refreshing to have seen Styles come and say: “I got it wrong” – he would have gone up in the estimation of half of Merseyside and indeed the footballing world as a whole. It is not his fault that a professional player has done his utmost to con the referee into thinking he had been the subject of a poor tackle from Steve Finnan. But the issue of diving isn’t going away and the men in black have to be taught to spot the tell-tale signs – such as the complete lack of contact!

This was the season that this kind of occurrence was supposed to be halted. The Premier League and the footballing authorities were said to be making a stand. Well, now is their chance. If an official misses an offence of this magnitude during the period of play, it should then be down to a panel to judge after the fact whether someone dived or ‘cheated’ during a match. That panel then needs to make an example of these offenders. In my opinion, this is far worse than a red card offence. It is worthy of a four or five-match ban. If they punished the offenders, there would be far fewer cheats taking the game to the cleaners with their underhand tactics.

It would be unfair to hold those on the books at Stamford Bridge as solely responsible for the growing disease in the game. Yesterday’s action also saw shameless dives from Robin van Persie. I am getting sick and tired of watching grown men throwing themselves to the floor and claiming a foul (which they always get). Officials should wise up to what everyone in the stands or in front of TV screens can see quite clearly.

I am also sick and tired of managers perpetuating the problem by evading the issue, by not admitting when their own player is at fault, for always claiming they didn’t see the incident. I would love pundits who greet the bosses post match to prepare a monitor in the eventuality of an obvious brush-off. If Mourinho denies seeing the incident, yeah right, then simply say to the Chelsea supremo:“OK, Jose, look to your left and tell me what you think?” Then see how he avoids the issue. Maybe all those seeking their refereeing badge should be forced to sit a week-long instructional programme on how to spot cheating. Maybe Didier Drogba could be a guest lecturer, with the help of Ashley Cole, of course.