Sportsmanship v Technology

Watched "El Classico" last night, players diving all over the place, 9 or 10 players booked, but only Ronaldo for simulation. One of the biggest club games in the world and the level of sportsmanship displayed by the players was shameful.

I would love to see replay technology introduced for various reasons, but particularly to be able to act retrospectively to suspend players for play-acting and other offences that spoil the game, such as shirt pulling. I would make it an automatic yellow card for grabbing someone's shirt. There can never be an excuse for it.

Agree. Having watched a lot of rugby this weekend it's hard to argue against video technology. Even when it interrupted play for a couple of minutes in the England game it was still as exciting as any goalmouth scramble.

The point is, I don't think we would have as many interruptions as anticipated, once players understood that they weren't going to get away with cheating.

Try it sat at home with your sky remote - rewinding and getting back to the live action again can be completed in less than five seconds. Your average Barcelona player still has another half a minute of rolling to complete in comparison.

Absolutely no excuse except the FA are worried about upsetting the egos of the referees. They fought goal line technology to the death and they'll do the same here. The message should be simple - if you keep sending off the wrong player entirely and missing players being ten yards offside (or worse - not even understanding the rules properly), then you clearly need help.

Also agree completely about retrospective bans regardless of whether the referee saw it or not if the punishment was not deemed sufficient.

Yup, we're all singing from the same hymn sheet here. I really think FIFA / UEFA / FA need to be harsher on players to continue football's popularity. Anybody watch El Classico the other night? Absolutely dire - so much gamesmanship going on as to make the game almost unbearable to watch.

Yellow cards for any player answering back or surrounding the referees. Retrospective action against divers and all of the above. It would be chaos for a few weeks but the players would very, very quickly learn.

Of course, it won't actually happen though...