A subject close to my heart is diving. When I say 'close to my heart' this is because I have in the past been accused of diving. I have always been adamant that I don’t dive but I merely invite the mistimed challenge which I have long believed gave me the moral high ground over those that went down under no contact whatsoever. If I lived in Italy or Spain my ability to ‘win’ a free kick or penalty would be admired and applauded as they consider it to be one of the dark arts of football. In England however it is still very much frowned upon. But should it be?

The question is - what constitutes diving? Obviously when no contact or attempt to tackle the player is made and the attacker throws himself to the floor this is a dive and this is cheating. It is an attempt by the player to con the referee into believing a foul had been committed and I rightly agree on occasions when no contact has been made the offender should be cautioned. But what if the defender sticks out a leg and fails to get the ball? Is the attacker then under a moral obligation to get out of the way? Or when contact is made, is he under a moral obligation to try and stay on his feet? For me the answer is no.

Amongst supporters there is very much a double standard. They will shout and scream when the opposition player goes down under the slightest of contact but when their own player in the same context stays on his feet after negligible contact the very same supporter will not only question his player for staying on his feet but will suggest that he should have gone down. It is these double standards that are frustrating. Although I will admit this is not solely the fault of the players. Some blame must be attached to the referees who still insist on only giving a penalty if players go to ground. If we could all be more objective and less blinkered, if we could all take a step back and agree that if there is contact then this is not a dive - the player has merely invited the mistimed challenge and is under no obligation to stay on his feet. This is a skill in itself; the attacking player has made the defender believe the ball was there to win when it wasn’t.

Maybe Spain has got it right, maybe Italy isn’t wrong after all. Maybe I don’t dive but merely invite the miss timed challenge. I’ll just say this; next time you are screaming at the TV when the opposition player goes after falling over your defenders outstretched leg - imagine if the tables had been turned and it was your player lying on the ground. Would it be so bad then?