It was a special goal, fitting of a higher stage, with a celebration copied directly from the top end of the game. It also reminded me of how often what happens in elite football — good and bad — is copied in the park.

A hot topic raising its head at the top end is diving. While I do not believe that diving is a significant problem in parks football, for example — there is not much tolerance for that sort of behaviour — we cannot be complacent.

Perhaps diving is a reflection of the high stakes in the modern professional game, but players at the top level have a responsibility as role models towards the millions of fans and amateur players who follow and sometimes copy their every move on the pitch.

No one wants to see diving in the game. It is cheating the referee, fellow players, the fans and the game itself. In this multi-camera age, offenders are being found out and in many cases vilified.

While I believe that talk of an epidemic is exaggerated, it is nevertheless a concern. The FA has led discussions with the Professional Footballers’ Association, the League Managers Association, referees and leagues on this issue and I’m delighted by how seriously they are taking it.

The first meeting took place at Soho Square this month and more will follow. We worked together last summer on confrontational and abusive behaviour towards referees and have a shared responsibility to protect the integrity of the game. We are also taking the debate to Fifa.

There is a definite need for close co-operation and self- policing. Everyone in the game has to take personal responsibility if we want to get rid of diving. It is essential that managers, players and clubs are closely involved as they are the ones who suffer the most directly from it. It is about players cutting it out of their game, managers refusing to tolerate it among their players, referees spotting it and punishing it when it happens and governing bodies supporting them.

Referees have a difficult job. Some players are highly skilled at going to ground under little or no contact. Sometimes players simply jump out of the way of a challenge, sometimes contact is difficult to assess. The referee’s task is not helped by players waving imaginary cards, trying to get other players booked or sent off.

I have spoken to Keith Hackett, the head of the Professional Game Match Officials Board, who has told me that he is working with his officials to improve the detection of diving and referees are getting closer to incidents in order to get a better viewing angle. The number of bookings for simulation — diving — has gone up substantially this season.

We need to give referees confidence in making these difficult decisions. They have to make split-second judgments on incidents happening at top speed, without the benefit of replays from different angles, which is afforded the armchair viewer.

The FA’s powers to deal with diving retrospectively are limited, largely because of Fifa’s reluctance to agree to measures that could be seen as re-refereeing games. We cannot take action on incidents that the referee has seen and dealt with at the time. We can take action only on incidents that the referee doesn’t see.

However, we are in ongoing discussions with Fifa on retrospective disciplinary action and have raised diving as a priority area where video evidence could be used. We also emphasised the need to examine the issue at a recent meeting with Fifa and insisted that clamping down on diving be made a priority area at this summer’s World Cup finals.

I have seen the suggestion raised that diving should be penalised by a red card. This would require a big change to the Laws of the game, which are universal and cannot be amended without Fifa’s support.

In any case, a clampdown on diving would require a worldwide approach. It is not a uniquely English concern.

English football traditionally has an international reputation for fair play, for a refusal to cheat. We need to ensure that players such as the young lad I watched last weekend take inspiration from the professionals for their skill, technique and athleticism alone, not from the ability of a minority to deceive the referee and their fellow players.

STAND UP AND BE COUNTED

Feb 8: Editorial in The Times demands that cheats are kicked out of football

Feb 11: The Times launches “Say No to Diving” campaign with the support of 12 Premiership clubs, the FA, the FA Premier League, the Football Supporters’ Federation, the English Schools Football Association, the League Managers Association (LMA), the Professional Footballers’ Association and the Referees’ Association

Feb 14: The Government and Uefa back our war on simulation and Fifa promises that referees will crack down on it during the World Cup finals in Germany

Feb 15: Fourteen of the 16 clubs left in the Champions League pledge to support our campaign. Arsenal and Chelsea maintain a diplomatic silence

Feb 16: Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, applauds The Times’s campaign. Brian Barwick, the FA chief executive, writes to Gordon Taylor, his PFA counterpart, in response to our campaign to request the backing of the players’ union in a clampdown on diving. Taylor pledges to launch an educational campaign to eliminate the problem with the support of the FA and the LMA

Mar 25: Didier Drogba, the Chelsea forward, admits that he dives in a television interview

KAVEH SOLHEKOL

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