• Poll: Should the FA bring in an automatic ban for all players who are guilty of diving?

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To Jim in Thailand.The Barcelona game was in 2004 and not 2001, and we have beaten several English clubs in that time too. As you pointed out, Celtic do not have the class that Arsenal have at their disposal which makes their European exploits all the more impressive.Yes there is a problem with bigotry, and yes we like a drink up here, but that didn't stop UEFA naming us as the greatest fans in Europe in 2003. Celtic have one of the biggest and most passionate supports in the world and the old firm game is commonly referred to as the greatest club game in the world. Your new stadium is not laughingly referred to as the 'Highbury library' for nothing. A clinical shopping mall experience devoid of atmosphere. Arsenal are an impressive team and I think you were unfortunate last year, but the facts remain that Eduardo is a deceitful wee cowardly chancer,hiding behind 'daddy' Arsene, and you my friend are a halfwit of the highest order.

- Andy, Glasgow

In reply to the sweaty sock,of course I am on the wind up,you sweaties are the easiest people in the world to wind up,granted Celtic have had a few results and I concede the Barcelona result was very impressive,but 2001 come on that is nearly a decade ago.Arsenal in that time have beaten a whole host of top flight European opposition.I just hope a British League is never formed,to have to put up with the religious bigotry spouted by both Celtic and Rangers fans is a good reason not to go down that route,another is the hordes of drunken sweaties that would follow them south of the border every weekend.Enjoy your Buckfast in chilly jocko land,I am writing this from a tropical paradise thankfully free of drunken,red faced sweaties.COME ON YOU GUNNERS.

- Jim Ex Pat,Islington N1, thailand

Jim in Thailand.You suspect I have been on the Buckfast? On 18th September 2001 Amoroso came on for Juventus and dived (admitting so in a post-match interview with a cheeky wink). From the resulting penalty Juve scored and defeated Celtic 3-2. Celtic took it on the chin, and beat Juve 4-3 on the return leg at Parkhead.On the 11th March 2004 Celtic beat a formidable Barcelona team 1-0 and held them to a goalless draw at the Nou Camp in the return leg.On the 3rd October 2007 Celtic emergerged 2-1 victors after a rollercoaster encounter with AC Milan.The Arsenal games were nothing compared to the aforementioned.Two flooky goals and an illegally won penalty. Your ignorance(in general) is once again displayed by your sweeping and misinformed generalisation about the Celtic support.You seemed to have missed that I agree that diving or any cheating for that matter should not be tolerated.You don't seem to be able to distinguish between McGeady's situation and Eduardo's.You are surely at the wind-up, or you have some mental health issues.Food for thought for your next psychiatric session. Good luck!

- Andy, Glasgow

Dear Cathy, are you for real? Do you honestly believe that Arsene works on diving with his players? Some might say typical woman - clueless. Not me, I just don't think you've thought this one through enough. Where was your objection when Rooney dived against Sol Cambell? Resulting in Sol's dismiss. Did Rooney practice that on the training ground with Sir Alex? What about the countless dives of Ronaldo? I suppose it's Sir Alex again?
Some might say stick to crotchet.

- Sp, Southend

Where were UEFA when Ryan Babel dived and Arsenal went out of the Champions League? Why didn't they do something about diving then? Unfortunately diving goes on in top class football but it's always been the referee's job to deal with it on the field and the matters ends there. So why is Eduardo being singled out? If you judge Eduardo and Arsenal in one way and fail to do the same to others that's even more serious cheating than diving.

- Joe Kotei, Ghana

Let's be clear about this, Edouardo cheated by feinging a trip by Boruc, which fooled the referee. The result was a penalty from which Arsenal scored, putting the tie beyond any faint hope Celtic might have had.

Most of what has been said is arrant nonsense. He should be penalised for what he was trying to do, in the same way that every player should be penalised for simulation. It is quite clear that Eboue also dived but as he was not in the penalty box, no penalty byut he got a yellow. This must be stamped out by rigorous application of the laws even if that means over the weekend a panel sits in judgment.The suggestions it's a witch-hunt are ridiculous but only if the authorities similarly ban others caught cheating. One law for all.

- Captain Black Of The Mysterons, London, England

Maybe I am ignorant when it comes to Scottish Football but who can blame me when their are only two teams competing.I never said that Mcgeady was in or around the penalty area,when he was red carded,how can Celtic complain when their own players and players from every club in the league have dived or tried to fool the ref into a decision.At the end of the day Celtic would not have beaten Arsenal even if the penalty had not been awarded,I would have put my house on it.You say that "Celtic have had tougher tests and come through victorious" when?I think you have been on the Buckfast Wine,the followers of Celtic in my opinion are on the whole Rab C Nesbitt types,friendly drunks,but say anything about Celtic and they go on the turn very quickly.Good luck in the Europa Cup sweaty sock.

- Jim Ex Pat,Islington N1, thailand

I remain astonished that arsenal fans continue to live in denial and argue, with a straight face may i add, that Eduardo did not dive but was hauled down by Boruc. Even if there was the slightest of contact, Eduardo reacted as if he had stepped on a landmine, theatrically throwing his arms into the air, thereby fulfilling the final criteria for the Olympic event. And for Eboue to do it again at OT, how embarassing for Arsenal fans. Arsenal players, stop diving! This has gone on way too long. The bigger "can of worms" is if this cheating mentality becomes institutionalised (as it seems to be at Arsenal on recent evidence) and accepted in the game. We all as football fans must reject this and I applaud UEFA and hope FA follows through. Something needs to be done because a yellow card for simulation is (clearly) NOT deterrent enough. Stop whinging and please move on like adults. Stop thinking this is all about Arsenal. its not, its about cheats getting away with it for far too long!

- Mickey, London

i just find this all rather ironic;Scots complaining about a south american cheat?,when they've been celebrating maradona's "hand of god goal " for years!what goes round comes round!!!!!

- Simon, london,england

I look forward to the day Craig Gorden fouls a player in the box, the ref waves play on and Craig then graciously stops everything, tells the ref what really happened and a penalty is duly awarded. Because if he didn't, now that would be hypocrisy, and cheating. 2 flaws. Would that mean double the ban?

- Rob, london

To Jim in Thailand. McGeady threw himself to the ground after dodging several tackles to avoid injury to himself and/or the defender. He was nowhere near the penalty area and he was dealt with at the time by the referee.Eduardo threw himself on the ground to win a penalty at a pivotal point in the game, thus allowing Arsenal breathing space to play their game. Arsenal are a better team but if they outlclassed Celtic so much, why cheat?? Celtic do not get away with murder, nor do they have a "friend" in UEFA.They did not go "bleating". The S.F.A. is the body under which all Scottish teams play, and it was this body that approached UEFA as it was incensed by the blatant deception of Eduardo.Yes Eduardo had a horrendous injury but so what? Your comments about the fellow professional thing are breathtaking. Eduardo disrespected every fellow professional on the pitch by his diving which deserves to be stamped out, no matter who you are.Past injury is completely irrelevant. Celtic were facing an uphill struggle but the third goal was the one which changed the whole complexion of the tie. Celtic have faced tougher tests and conme through victorious and have also beaten English teams in Europe in the recent past despite differences in class. Just ask Blackburn, Man U and Liverpool. You should get your facts straight before you rant and expose your ignorance. Shame on YOU, you clown!

- Andy, Glasgow

Jim Ex Pat,Islington N1, thailand...what a plonker. Lots of players suffer terrible injury and DONT use that as an excuse for cheating. As for Celtic using their Scottish friend in Uefa and presumeably the SFA you obviously dont know anything about football politics north of the border. You probably dont know anything about football period! Taylor and Smith are no friends of Celtic. McGeady was booked and subsequently sent off so he will quite correctlly be banned...something which Edwardo, Wenger and you gooners should now accept as a correct punishment rather than crying like babies.

- Jim, London

Arsenal are in the Champions League group stages, whilst Celtic are out. With or without Eduardo for 2 matches, Arsenal will progress to the knockout stage. For a club that plays football as it should be played Arsenal are harshly treated by the idiotic domestic & european league officials.

- Billy Best, London

Arsene Wenger's philosophy is you are only guilty if you get caught, Eduardo was caught. Arsene Wenger admitted that he has lied and said he did not see things, remember? Well what goes around comes around. By the way that makes Arsene Wenger a liar and a cheat. Hmmmm!

- Colin Stevens, USA

This is what happens when you continue to deny seeing a blatant foul by your players right in front of you in the dugout. This is what Wenger has been doing since he came to Atsenal. Subsequently, nobody is prepared to listen to him or believe a word he says. His non stop whinging and berating the ref and fourth officials is there for everyone to see.

What about the Eboue's dive? After the Eduardo incident surely he must have warned his player about diving, or has it reached a point where his players, like Wenger himself still believe they are doing nothing wrong.

- James, Manchester England

Kb, London.

You're a buffoon. What a ridiculous post you've made here. I don't dispute that Didier Drogba has "dived" and feigned injury on occasions and I can assure you that Chelsea supporters at The Bridge are the first to let him know what they think of his antics from time to time.

Nevertheless, in your haste to castigate him (an irrelevance in this debate) you have totally missed the point. Again, is cheating less of an offence than after- match emotional verbal reaction ? You, UEFA and their representives are both insidious and ignorant.

- Charlie, Nr. Crackpot, North Yorkshire

Before this game I had a lot of respect for Celtic Football Club,in football of course you get foul play,elbows,studs up tackles,spitting,diving it has evolved with the game,sometimes your team gets the refs decision sometimes not,Celtic get away with murder in the Scottish League but when they are beaten off the park over two legs by a far superior team they go squealing to their Scottish friends in UEFA to punish the opposition for diving,Aiden Mceady was sent off against Hibs for diving ,in my opinion he also should be banned if Eduardo is banned.Celtic Football Club has been shown to be an unsporting club who are not gracious in defeat and use the powers at their disposal to start an action against a player who suffered a terrible injury without complaint,to do this to a fellow pro is deplorable and not in the spirit of Football,shame on you Celtic.

- Jim Ex Pat,Islington N1, thailand

Charlie
Drogba is the King of Cheaters. Give me a break. Even though I question whether he can read, he wrote the book on cheating. He should quit football and start a school. He could make more money. You have to be joking.

- Kb, London

This is such fun. Obviously it means just one thing. All cheating will now get a yellow card. Goal Line camera's will be introduced. Martin O'Neill will need a season ticket as he will spend the season in the stands.
UEFA have opened a can of worms.

- Kevin, London

It was of course a blatent dive and only gooners with rose tinted glasses would say otherwise. Sad that someone like Wenger who has done so much for football with the way his team plays the game that he cannot see how stupid he sounds trying to defend Edwardo's dive. As for the penalty, some of the contributors fail to appreciate the difference between being caught diving (a yellow card) and being penalised later with video evidence (a two match ban). The later is necessarily different as it reflects that Arsenal obtained an unfair advantage (a penalty and subsequent goal) through Edwardo's cheating. If he had been spotted and caught in the act then a yellow would have been correct as no advantage would have occurred to Arsenal.

- Jim, London

Cathy - last time I looked when a player was fouled after getting away from his man that was cheating as well. When a players handles a ball in the penalty area and gets away with thats cheating as well. When a player kicks the ball out of play and then ttrys to claim the throw thats cheating as well. All of them are attempts to deceive the referee into making the wrong decision. I'm not saying Eduardo should not be punished but eaxctly where do you start to apply the rule and under what circumstances. Corner incorrectly awarded due to false claim - goal - do you ban the player for deceiving the referee? And more importantly how do UEFA apply this rule consistently and keep credibility across all the clubs. Becuase the next time something like this happens and UEFA do NOT act in the same way all holy crap is going to hit the fan.

- Steve, London, UK

So cheating gets a two-match ban, but an understandable and natural emotional reaction at the end of a highly charged match (Drogba) to inept and equivocal refereeing, which certainly "cheated" Chelsea out of a Champions League Final last season, receives a harsher punishment and longer ban. Didier Drogba DID NOT cheat or physically attack anyone. Where's the honesty and equity ?

UEFA (led by the shifty, and self confessed cheat, M. Platini) have an agenda, i.e. stop English Clubs - particularly Chelsea FC - from winning their thoroughly discredited marquee trophy. It's my view, therefore, that all of the English Clubs start every match in the Competition on a handicap of -1 goal purely because, before they kick-off, they're up against the conniving and corruption of the disreputable organisation that is UEFA.

- Charlie, Nr. Crackpot, North Yorkshire

There is no doubt that Eduardo dived. That is not the point. The point is that he has been singled out and made an example of when this sort of thing happens day in, day out throughout world football. Why should one player be suddenly punished out of the blue just because Celtic fans feel hard done by. The real investigation should be on how the powers that be have used their influence to appease a few high powered Scottish football fans. Diving is not new and Eduardos dive was no different to any other, whatever their nationality.

- Kerry, London

If it was a dive, which Im not certain it was, as Boruc's knee appears to accidentally contact with Eduardo, then a booking is the prescribed punishment. Hence a two match ban is plainly idiotic, especially as the referee has not made any comment to contradict his penalty verdict. As for cheating, fouling oppostion players physically is far worse as its risks a players health & possibly their career. It has always seemed rather strange to me that players receive harsh penalties for diving, dissent, shirt pulling etc, whilst physical assaults are often ignored!

- Rob Gooner, North London

Will this now also mean that every player who commits a foul but the foul is not caught by the referee be subject to video trail later on? After all is that not deception or cheating? What about the goal that never was for Palace 2 weeks ago? Rooney was going to ground in the Man Ure game before there was any connection - is that not cheating? Trouble is now where do you stop? And why single just the one player out - because the game was televised - does that mean televised games are subject to different rules?

- Rob, london

Cathy, you obviously can't see through your teams tinted spectacles to see the truth. Wenger is simply asking for equal treatment and for the rules to state this. When Gerrard, Ronaldo, Rooney and various others have dived they have got away with it (English players are generally classed as 'clever' by the media over here when they dive - Owen v Argentina is a good example). The divers at Arsenal? we do have Eboue who is almost as embarrassing as Gerrard but as he's a foreigner he doesn't get away with it. We had Pires, a beautiful player who after so many challenges and desperately poor knees, tended to take a dive rather than the tackle in his latter years. Outside of that I'm struggling and you will find a similar amount of divers at most clubs. Don't also fall into this 'it's a foreign things that's been brought in!' it isn't anyone who watched Francis Lee or Mickey Thomas in the 70's will know it went on (sorry to use these guys as examples, i'm sure they weren't the only ones). It's just that we have saturated coverage of football where we see every game with at least major highlights. So you see more of it than you used too.

So take off the team tinted specs and get real, listen and maybe you will learn something.

- Carlosthegooner, London

So what he's complaining about is that the club is being punished for cheating rather than because he doesn't believe the player took a dive? If we take this to its obvious (OK, far fetched) conclusion, maybe murderers can be let off because not all murderers get caught? It would help his case had we not seen another example against Man U on Saturday ... maybe in the interest of consistency Eboue had better be banned too.

- Paul, London

cathy go home!
you just don't see the bigger picture do you, all teams have divers you must know that with supporting man u/liverpool.
rooney/nani/torres/owen/gerrard all take the tumble.
the point of wenger going to town on this is to make sure this isn't just a one time deal, its all or nothing for use of tv evidence to punish the accused.
stop skimming the headlines and dig deeper.

- Gareth, london

Cathy, you must be from the old "English players don't dive- Foreigners do" school, which normally turns a blind eye on diving acts of people like Rooney and Gerrard.
Go on, blame it on Wenger, you probably chose to not look when Rooney dived again to turn an important game, only 3 days after the Eduardo incident.

- Alan, Guildford

Well said Cathy.
I'm fed up with the likes of Edwardo, Rooney, Ronaldo, Drogba, Gerrard, Torres and even Carrick when he went over at Old Trafford when Gomes didn't touch him getting free kicks and penalties for cheating.
I would rather the referee make a mistake and give a yellow to a player who was brought down now and again than this circus of falling over all the time to get an advantage.
It seems the more important the player the better chance he has of getting a penalty. Gerrard expects and looks for them constantly.
Well done UEFA.
Wenger has gone a bit strange recently.
Maybe he should concentrate on getting his house in order before he sorts out everyone elses.
We can expect a better football season now this little perk is dissapearing.

- Kevin, London

What a bloody cheek has Wenger! His player dived and therefore CHEATED. He's lucky to only receive a two match ban. It's time there was an investigation into Wenger. He must be responsible for the number of Arsenal players who dive all over the field. They are obviously trained to make contact and then fall down. It happens too often for it to be coincidence.

- Cathy, Dooagh, Ireland

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