Refs chief hits out at cheats

Referees chief John Baker has revealed that diving gets under the skin of officials more than any other offence on a football pitch.

Baker, head of refereeing at the Football Association, was speaking after Yeovil defender Hugo Rodrigues accused Harry Kewell of deliberately going down to win the penalty which led to Liverpool’s second goal in yesterday’s FA Cup encounter.

The Australia international appeared to go down theatrically just inside the box after 77 minutes.

Danny Murphy scored from the spot to secure victory after substitute Emile Heskey had opened the scoring seven minutes earlier.

And while he would not comment on the Kewell incident directly, Baker said: “Everybody feels a bit sick when you do get an attempt to deceive the ref. If you’ve (the referee) been cheated you feel the same thing.

“No-one likes to think they’ve been conned.”

Yeovil defender Rodrigues hit out at Kewell following the Third Division side’s defeat.

El-Hadji Diouf had already been booked for diving in the first half.

Rodrigues told The Sun: “I spoke with Kewell at the time and told him I never touched him. He said ‘Yeah, I know you didn’t. But this is football, man. I had to dive’.

“I have seen my challenge on Kewell again on the TV and it definitely wasn’t a foul.”

Kewell certainly appeared to throw himself to the ground but only after Rodrigues stuck out a leg.

And Baker admitted that referees do have a problem if even the slightest contact is made by a defender.

He said: “The guidance that we give is to have the clearest possible view then to make a judgement as to whether contact is made.

“If contact is made then it is hard to say that you are trying to deceive the ref. Sometimes the degree of contact makes life difficult.”

Baker confirmed that there is no chance of Rodrigues making his case to an FA video panel, which is used when the officials have missed an on-field offence.

Whether a player has dived or not is a decision which, by definition, is made at the time by the referee.

That might be of little consolation to Rodrigues and would almost certainly disappoint Aston Villa’s Dion Dublin, who wants divers to be kicked out of the game.

Dublin, who started his career as a striker but is now in defence for Villa, told BBC Radio 5 Live: “I feel quite strongly that if someone purposefully acts and cheats it’s a disgrace.

“I have never, never done it in my career. If you have to go down when you are pushed over that’s fine.

“It is cheating [if you go over without being pushed]. It has to be thrown out of the game.”