Eduardo

I had to laugh when I saw that Arsenal's lawyers submitted a several page dossier to suggest that one couldn't prove that Eduardo dived. The legal bills could probably buy you a decent football league striker, notwithstanding the fact that even a moron with a lobotomy could see Eduardo was giving Tom Daley a run for his money.
However, UEFA have dug themselves a hole now. One would like to think they have signalled a determined campaign to stamp out this irritating pratice, but I'm not holding my breath. Are they going to ban every player who takes a dive? I doubt it.
There's a simple solution, and it involves using technology, something Platini and his fellows are dead against during the game but seem happy to do so retrospectively. Team captains should be allowed two referrals per match in which they can question a referee's ruling. These should be restricted to penalty decisions, sendings off, and "goals" that are scored and then ruled off-side. In the last case, they could only be referred if the referee's whistle has not blown before the "goal" is scored.
Look how tennis has removed all the "Are you serious?" moments from the sport. Cricket too has begun using referrals without too much fuss. Rugby has been doing it for years. In all these sports, you don't hear accusations that the referees or umpires are being undermined, just a recognition that they are human and have only one pair of eyes. As with rugby, if the video replays prove inconclusive, then the benefit of the doubt either falls to the defending team in respect of penalties or with the ref's original decision. Modifications to this idea would doubtless involve during trials. It's commonsense. Tell that to Arsenal's lawyers.