THE issue of diving in football raised its ugly head again last weekend, with several incidents taking place in the Premier League.

Willian, Diego Costa, Gary Cahill, Adam Johnson and Harry Kane were all accused of trying to con referees by taking a dive, but looking at all of the incidents left me more confused than ever.

Sometimes, it’s clear to see that a player has dived, but more often than not, it’s very difficult to determine whether they are trying to cheat or not.

I think it would be possible to make an argument that all five of the incidents I mentioned earlier were dives, but it would be just as easy to make a case for most of them to be considered fouls.

The incident involving Cahill garnered plenty of attention as the referee could have shown him a second yellow card. There wasn’t any contact, but I don’t think it was a dive either.

Cahill tried to run into a gap between two defenders, but there wasn’t really a gap there and in trying to jump over the opposition players’ legs, I think he lost his balance.

What was he supposed to do? Keep running as normal and smash into the defenders, potentially injuring both himself and the other players?

Johnson’s case was also an interesting one. There was a touch on his back, but I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t heavy enough to make him fall down.

Does that mean that it wasn’t a foul? In that case, maybe, but there are instances where a foul might not be enough to send a player to the ground, but if they carried on, it would impede them, preventing a shot or a pass.

That should result in a foul, but referees seem reluctant to penalise players, particularly in the penalty area, if they don’t cause their opponent to lose their footing.

So, should players stay on their feet and risk losing possession as the result of a foul? Or should they go to ground to make sure that they get the free-kick or penalty that they should be entitled to?

One thing is certain. If I can’t make up my mind, having seen each incident slowed down from several different angles, then referees, who only see each incident once, in real time, have little chance of making the right call.

It needs to be taken out of their hands.

In my opinion, handing out yellow cards for diving does little to discourage the practice anyway. Instead, referees should just award fouls as they see them, with punishment for diving being taken retrospectively.

It would take a change in the laws of the game, but you could have a panel meeting on a Monday to rule on diving cases, using television evidence. If found guilty, players would face a ban.

There would still be borderline cases, but I’d argue that there would not be as many, because players would be less likely to go down too easily, knowing that they could find themselves banned.

Have your say on this issue using the comment box at the bottom of the page – or contact me on Twitter @JBoymanGazette.