String up arrogant diver Diouf

IT’S a disease that won’t go away of its own volition. The ‘authorities’ that speak loudly of their intentions have, so far, failed utterly to address the problem.

FIFA said ‘exponents’ would be sent off during the World Cup. The Football Association and English referees, pre-season, asked for clubs’ co-operation in eradicating the problem. But, in each case, nothing has happened. The problem? Diving.

And an example has to be set. Step forward El-Hadji Diouf. Now this guy thinks he’s a “clever” footballer and is only doing what “everybody else does”.

“It’s not just me who dives. If you see Wayne Rooney, how often does he dive to get a penalty? “Sometimes I need to dive to have a penalty. It’s just football. The best footballer is very clever like that. Sometimes I dive because I move my foot before the guy comes in to break my leg. Sometimes I get a free kick, sometimes I don’t.

“The problem is sometimes the referees are not very good. I’ve had penalties and not been given them.

“I’ve won some penalties like that but how many penalties has Rooney won and nothing is ever said about him? But it is when it’s me.”

Poor Diouf. Don’t you feel sorry for this oh-so-clever footballer whose only being honest in saying that he cheats? Do I hell as like! This morning, when they open the doors at Soho Square, after their usual weekend of inactivity, the first item on the agenda should be to haul Diouf in for punishment. The player’s arrogance beggars belief. Is it any wonder he’s disliked everywhere he goes? Even, I suspect, deep down at the Reebok? And he mustn’t be allowed to get away with this outrage. Nor should it end there.

I even had an Aston Villa supporter on the phone-in the other night disgusted at how his own player, Stilian Petrov, went down to ‘win’ a penalty against Middlesbrough. This sort of nonsense has gone on for far too long. The fans are fed up with it. Action is long overdue.

And what is wrong with taking retrospective punishment? Why can’t the FA sit down, like the rest of us, to watch Match of the Day and say: “Hold on. That’s cheating. I don’t care if the referee saw it or didn’t see it. That player should be suspended.”

Really, it’s time we threw away any rule or regulation that inhibits people doing what is right for the game and it’s time too that football rid itself of its appalling hypocrisy.

I don’t laugh when I hear how Sepp Blatter, the President of FIFA, tells an Italian audience how their team were worthy winners of the World Cup shortly after he ‘apologised’ to Australians because their side lost to a penalty when Grosso “dived” to win it. I cringe. And it isn’t good enough.

Diouf isn’t alone.

We all know that. But to boast of diving isn’t “clever”.

He’s an arrogant buffoon and should be strung up for it. It just might be an example that would shame others into learning how to behave.