Reinventing football: Is anything being done about bad player behaviour?

Simulation was a key topic raised in last season’s Premier League Football Survey – completed by players, managers, club staff and fans.

“A strong approach will be taken to deal with actions aimed at deceiving the referee,” the association said.

The evidence backs this up, with nine bookings issued this season across 99 matches. That’s a frequency of 0.8 bookings per game – the second highest ever (the 2012-13 season saw 0.9 bookings) and double the number of the previous two seasons.

There is a long-forgotten FA rule in the Championship, which allows retrospective action to be taken for players who successfully deceive a match referee.

This only covers a player who has been proven to have used the simulation to win a penalty. If they don’t get the penalty but aren’t booked, they don’t count, so it’s a narrow corridor.

Two players – Owen Lunt (Crewe Alexandra) and Garath McCleary (Gillingham) – have been banned for two matches for cheating a match official this season.

Everton’s Omar Niasse and West Ham United’s Manuel Lanzini were the only players ever banned for this in League One shortly after it was introduced in 2017 before VAR was made obsolete two years later.

With every penalty now reviewed by VAR, it is virtually impossible to face retrospective action in the Premier League.

Only three players have been booked for diving after a penalty was disallowed based on a VAR review: Chelsea’s Callum Hudson-Odoi in October 2019, Newcastle United’s Joe Willock in May this year, and Brighton’s Jorginio Rutter last Sunday.

But fans see simulation as more than just falling to get a penalty, for example grabbing the face when making contact. This goes unpunished all the time and is not covered by any FA initiative.