"Utter Rubbish!" - Big Sam Blasts New FA Rule To Tackle Divers
Sam Allardyce has blasted the FA's new plans to weed diving out of football whilst urging them to use on-the-spot technology instead.
English football's governing body has passed reforms which will see an independent panel review video footage every Monday to look for cases of simulation.
If the three-person panel unanimously agrees that a player has deliberately dived, leading to a red card (direct or two yellows) or penalty, a ban will be slapped on the guilty party.
"It's utter rubbish," Allardyce declared this afternoon when asked about the new rule. "What about the lad that gets booked that didn't dive? What are they going to do with that? What are they going to do with it?
"They're going to say, 'oh well that's unlucky, next time we'll try and get that right'.
"So the lad that dived gets punished but then the lad that gets punished when he didn't dive, the referee punishes...they're going to have to reverse that somehow."
"So bring technology in and we can look at it on the day. And then bring a sin-bin in so we can put him in the sin-bin for ten minutes and then put him back on and stop paying all these people money to do rubbish situations in the game. That's utter rubbish."
Burnley boss Sean Dyche did not come out for or against the new rule but believes something has to be done to address the diving problem.
"Just morally it needs to end, if not for any other reason. I've got a lad who plays, kids I see all over the country, diving all over the floor.
"So even if it's just morally, I think it needs to be changed."
The FA panel will consist of one former match official, one ex-manager and one ex-player which is different to how the rule is implemented in Scotland.
The Scottish FA introduced the system at the start of the season whereby SFA compliance officer Tony McGlennan reviews incidents and determines whether or not a complaint should be raised.
If a player is deemed to have dived and the match officials missed the incident, the player is issued with a disciplinary notice.
He then has two choices; acknowledge guilt and accept the punishment, or appeal.
If he appeals, a three-person panel will consider the case made by both the compliance officer and the player before making a ruling.
Former SFA chief executive Gordon Smith was behind the implementation of the rule in Scotland and feels it has worked.
"I see it more, watching the English Premier [League]. I see more of it than I do when I watch Scottish games. So I think it has had an effect.
"I think that the players realise they can be punished and I think that's what you've got to bring home."