The examples shown of players banned in Scotland on the BBC website are very much ones where players have literally thrown themselves to the ground without there being any contact, i.e. straight forward and clear cut. Once they look at decisions where there is contact it is going to be a minefield, however I'm all in favour of it.
Tonight's match showed Varney trying to win a pen. He failed. The commentators on the slo-mo explained how he'd stuck his leg across the defender and how successful this technique had been last season compared to this. The consensus seemed to be that the refs had sussed him. But, there's no doubt the contact did cause him to go to ground. Would that count as a dive do you think? I suspect not.
That is where the charge of embellishment that I mention above would come in.
I like the idea of retrospective reviews of this. I think it can be difficult for official to see this in real time, and it's one of those things where a post match review can highlight.
Retrospective red cards for drawing a penalty or getting someone sent off makes sense. I'd like to see retrospective yellow for any other examples. That would really start cracking down on this.
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Retrospective red cards for drawing a penalty or getting someone sent off makes sense. I'd like to see retrospective yellow for any other examples. That would really start cracking down on this.