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Melbourne Victory captain Kevin Muscat has called on A-League players to band together to stamp out diving, rather than relying on officials to do it.
The seasoned defender said the controversial practice of deliberately going to ground to milk a penalty was simply “cheating” and should not be tolerated by players in Australia.
The issue hit the spotlight again when Adelaide United’s Brazilian striker Cristiano was awarded a penalty after appearing to take a dive without being touched in last Friday night’s loss to Melbourne at Hindmarsh Stadium.
Former Socceroo Robbie Slater labelled it “a disgrace”.
Victory defender Rodrigo Vargas, the player penalised, suggested video replays be used to impose sanctions on players who take dives.
But Muscat said today he would prefer players sort out the issue themselves.
“The onus is on the players to be honest, the onus has got to start with us,” Muscat said today.
“You open a can of worms if we start going back to sanctioning players.
“The referees have got a difficult enough job as it is.
“I think it’s got to come from within first of all and if players don’t accept that it is cheating, well we’re struggling.
“Because first of all you’ve got to admit to your mistakes before you try and rectify them.”
Muscat said it was a particularly important issue in the A-League because Australian crowds were less tolerant to that sort of behaviour than elsewhere in the world.
“It’s not in our culture, people turn up in Australia to watch sport, any sport, and it’s not acceptable here,” he said.
“Going back to what I said, it’s got to come from within, it’s got to come from the players first of all.
“It’s one thing maybe getting pushed and going down a little bit easy, but to blatantly dive and go out of your way to do it, the sooner it gets stamped out the better.”
Muscat said Melbourne’s effort in overcoming that setback to win the match 3-2 had done wonders for their spirits after losing their previous two games.
The Victory will be further buoyed for Saturday’s clash with Queensland Roar by the return of strikers Archie Thompson and Ney Fabiano, both from suspension.
“To have them back for this game, it’s an important one for us as well because we want to maintain a bit of form now and go on a little bit of a run,” Muscat said.
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