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Wenger - Why I’m a big fan of the new diving rules

Arsene Wenger

The Football Association last month confirmed that retrospective punishment for players who dive will be introduced next season.

If found guilty of simulation, the offending player will receive a two-match ban, while the FA also have the power to rescind a yellow or red card given to the player who was deemed to have committed a foul during the game.

But what does Arsene Wenger make of the new rules? 

on whether he is pleased with the new diving rules…

I’m a big fan because you want to get the cheating out of the game as much as you can and I would say you have to respect for the fans who pay money. They come to watch football, not to come [watch] people who dive. They want to see the game. We demand a lot of money from our fans now so we want to make the game as clean and fluent as possible.

 

on whether his opinion has changed since the Eduardo situation…

The criticality is that it was all based on him and you had some other people diving in the league, who were not ostracised as much. He was diving and he was guilty, but he was punished, he was punished. We accepted the punishment.

 

on whether he thought it was a dive at the time…

I am still not sure today. A good diver creates a doubt in your mind, there are good and bad divers. What I want to say is, you cannot be against the rule because the rule basically you want to get the cheating out. Where the difficulty comes is to judge.

 

on the difficulty of judging what is a dive and what is not…

Exactly. It has to be completely obviously and that will be down to panel, because sometimes a guy touches your leg, you have to fall down, but you make more of it. To make more of it is a bit playing with the rules that is normal and part of the player. To dive when nobody touches you, you have to get that out of the game.