Diving = Good Thinking = Bad

Normally, Paul Jewell - manager of Wigan Athletic - talks a lot of sense.

This is not one of those times.

The current Wigan boss thinks that the Premiership should allow diving because - and I quote while weeping softly to myself - "No-one likes cheating but I think the best way to get rid of it [diving] is to say 'Okay, if you get away with it you get away with it' because one week you will be unlucky."

Jewell also added: "I might be the only fellow in the world that thinks 'Why don't we just allow it?',"

Yes, Paul, you're right. You are the only 'fellow' in the world that thinks 'just allow it'. Partly because diving is cheating and partly because your logic is flawed beyond all reason.

If you 'allow' diving, then that would mean no player would ever be booked for it. The consequences of cheating the referee would therefore be zero. It doesn't take Einstein to figure out that this would further undermine the authority of the ref; create more situations where they would have to make difficult decisions; and increasingly make a travesty of the game.

But if that's what you want, Paul, then who am I to stand in your way.