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  • What happened to the referee in question? Has he been banned for two matches too?

    I think Miller has been incredibly unlucky to be the first one banned for this. It will be historic but is merely a random act from the FA. There will be similar and worse cases of cheating over this weekend that will go totally unpunished.

  • I rather like this quote from Carlisle in the report:

    "In our view, there was no intent to deceive the referee and it is not a clear act either. Shaun and no other Carlisle United players appealed for a penalty.

    "They all played on and were not expecting or seeking any decision. You can see from the footage that they were all surprised when a penalty was given."

    I tend to agree at least to the extent that there's so much falling over in the game anyway that players don't get too excited about nor expect anything from the referee for. They are quite right that neither Miller nor anyone else looked to the referee for a decision.

    It seems to be their case that the player who fell over is being held responsible for the referee making an awful decision. One might respond that he might like to make more effort to stay on his feet in future if he wants to avoid this sort of difficulty. But I have a measure of sympathy that I would not have if he had gone to ground with his arms outstretched and a loud scream.

  • Or just tap the ball out for a throw in, or score and let Wycombe kick off go up the other end and score #corinthianspirt

  • He could have always told the referee that it wasn't a penalty!

  • Prepare for the floodgates of players and clubs appealing decisions after every game! (Paris better be a bit more careful...)

  • the player was charged on video evidence not because we complained. It may have been the referee who will have watched his own performance back that could have highlighted it and he could have told the referee that but Robbie Fowler did that once and it made no difference.

  • He would not have been the first to stand up and say ‘no penalty ref’. Maybe we will see this happen in the future. I doubt it

  • Well now he knows the rules, he will:

    1. Be more careful to stay on his feet next time.
    2. If he goes to ground without contact and a penalty awarded he will respectively tell the referee it is not a penalty to ensure he is not punished in the future.
  • Hasn't Miller got a bit of reputation for going down easily? Apparently he's done it to us before with a different club.

    He may well have not appealed, but he didn't own up either. He could have told the referee it wasn't a foul and the ref could have reversed the decision. Alternatively, if the ref had insisted on awarding a penalty, he could have simply passed the ball to Brown, or put it out for a goal kick and earned himself a nice sporting round of applause and plenty of pats on the back. But he didn't and now he's been banned and nationally shamed. Not a great deal of sympathy to be honest.

  • Miller’s other ‘dive’ is at 1:35ish in the link below.

  • Ainsworth's drive is worse in that video

  • edited October 2017

    Tend to agree, @SEWanderer. There's a certain amount of "Physician, heal thyself" about this Miller conversation. In the above video, both players took a punt when they had lost control of the ball, an approach unique neither to those two players nor those two clubs. Just like pretty much every football team, we've plenty of players who will go to ground to try to get a free-kick. LO'N, who I like very much, has pretty much mastered, at a young age, the knack of turning his back on an opponent and going to ground at the first hint of a touch when he's down a blind alley. He's won scores of free kicks doing it.

    Like most commenters, I'm not sorry for Miller and am glad that this behaviour has been highlighted and stigmatised. But let's not get on our high horses too much.

  • @Jonny_King said:
    Hasn't Miller got a bit of reputation for going down easily? Apparently he's done it to us before with a different club.

    He may well have not appealed, but he didn't own up either. He could have told the referee it wasn't a foul and the ref could have reversed the decision. Alternatively, if the ref had insisted on awarding a penalty, he could have simply passed the ball to Brown, or put it out for a goal kick and earned himself a nice sporting round of applause and plenty of pats on the back. But he didn't and now he's been banned and nationally shamed. Not a great deal of sympathy to be honest.

    See my post 6 above yours

  • Tend to agree with @HCblue on this. I have no sympathy with Miller though as he has done it to us before. I just hope that it happens more in the Premiership where they have more camera angles and the effects will hopefully filter down to our level & beyond. Let's be honest, it started abroad and was imported with the purchase of foreign players by the top league. As such I'm hoping the reverse can occur. The game will be a lot better for it, though I'm not holding my breath!

  • It was interesting to see they’ve had this rule in Scotland since 2011.

    This was the Guardian’s comment on its ‘success’ when they reported introducing it to England earlier this year:

    “The retrospective punishment has not eradicated diving in Scotland since it was introduced in 2011 but it has occasionally provided some semblance of justice.”

    So looking promising then!

  • @EwanHoosaami No-one ever dived before those dreadful foreigners came over did they.
    Franny Lee didn't win 10pens a year diving did he...

  • Gareth Bale and Ashley Young are pretty adept at the "art".

  • And I don't remember too many people crying too much when Owen went down easily v Argentina in 98

  • Pundits praise players for drawing a foul, ie making a player foul or obstruct you to win a free kick. This has become part of player’s skill set. Less and less do we see players try and stay on their feet when foulded. I think this is largely down to poor officials who are unable to determine whether a free kick or advantage is the best option, therefore the player makes up the officials mind by going down at the slightest touch. Our worst offender is PCH unfortunately.

  • Harry Kane did a good job of staying on his feet for his second though!

  • A couple of soft/dodgy penalties at the weekend on Match of the Day. Ex-pro's using super slow mo HD to show that a hair on the defender's leg brush a bead of sweat on the attackers knee therefore contact has been made therefore the attacker has the right to go down therefore the referee has to award a penalty.
    The diving panel will pretty much be exclusively working in divisions 3 and 4 I'm guessing.

  • Video technology to prove a goal is a goal...but for every contentious decision? Not for me. It did us no good and will not stop diving in my opinion.

  • http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/41862125

    Another random ban announced today. Another club surprised by the decision.
    At the moment you have to be pretty unlucky to get caught on this and so far it's only been based on bad refereeing decisions. Are they saying that if the referee sees you diving or cheating but doesn't fall for it or doesn't book you on the day you are going to get a two game ban? It's almost better making sure the ref books you at the time isn't it?

  • 'These type of bans have been used in Scottish football since 2011.'

    No information about whether or not it has worked though.

  • Their defence is that there was definitely contact. I walked through a shopping centre yesterday evening and there was definitely contact with at least one person. At no point did I fall and then roll around. I’m quite competent now at balancing in fact. So maybe there was contact in this instance but what the panel has judged is that the reaction to the contact was exaggerated.

  • I guess I should not be surprised at all when a Premiership player gets banned for cheating (yes I said the C word) his manager leaps to his defence to say he is innocent and this law is dangerous. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42113397
    Everyone connected to football surely wants this sh1t out of our game and I am no doubt Mr Unsworth will be spitting blood tomorrow if an opposition player cheats (see I did it again, it good to call it as it is) and his Everton side are disadvantaged. Coaching players to use their balance as a skill rather than applaud them for 'winning' a penalty or free-kick would be a lovely thing wouldn't it?

  • Still think the diving panel will be operating purely in divisions 3 and 4, Andy?

  • @DevC I think if more managers supported it we would see it effective across the board. The more Mr Unsworth et al do their best to undermine something that all fans want the less effective it will be. As premiership managers get the vast majority of media attention then I think the system will dilute down the leagues.

  • @TheAndyGrahamFanClub in Unsworth’s case, the C word is the ridiculously used ‘contact’ to justify swan diving all over the shop.

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