Simulation at issue as SFA seeks to drive the dive out of the game

THE Scottish Football Association has set the ball rolling in an attempt to drive simulation out of the game.

The SFA has put the matter on the agenda at a meeting of the International Football Association Board, the body which rules on any changes to the laws of the game, in Gleneagles next month.

The issue of simulation has been the subject of heated debate since the September international between Scotland and Lithuania, when Saulius Mikoliunas of Hearts won a penalty for the visiting side with a dive. Scotland won the match 3-1, and Mikoliunas was later suspended for two matches for his actions.

With Scottish referees regularly booking players deemed to have dived, simulation has also been a hot topic domestically. The SFA has not submitted any specific proposals to be voted on, but the International Board has the power to make a ruling on the matter.

The meeting on 8 March will also consider a motion from the English Football Association about dealing with players who are down, apparently injured, while the ball remains in play. The practice of kicking the ball out of play to allow treatment has grown to the extent that it can seem to be under the control of players rather than match officials, and the proposal aims to formalise a way of dealing with such a situation.

The English FA wants the following "fair-play convention" to be adopted: Play will go on unless the referee stops play. If the referee does whistle, the player will receive attention and leave the pitch. Play will then be restarted with a dropped ball, and the ball will be returned to the goalkeeper of the team who were in possession when play was stopped.

On the other hand, if the team of the "injured" player kicks the ball out of play, the referee will decide whether to allow the player to receive attention. Play will then restart, as normal, with a throw-in, and the team taking the throw-in will be entitled to keep possession.

If passed, the FA's motion would still allow teams taking throw-ins to be "sporting" and return the ball to the opposition. But, while that is a possible weakness, the motion as a whole would at least regulate a part of the game which at present can provoke acrimony.

The meeting will also discuss goal-line technology, and will receive a progress report from the FA on Hawk-Eye, the system which is used in tennis, and another from Fifa on a potential alternative from Adidas and Cairos Technologies. Fifa has also asked permission to conduct an experiment involving two extra assistant referees at an unspecified forthcoming tournament under its jurisdiction, tasked solely with assessing goal-line incidents.

The Welsh FA has submitted a proposal that would set down a standard pitch size of 105 x 68 metres for all international games. The Welsh will argue that the current ability to vary the size of pitches can be used to disadvantage visiting teams.

More generally, the International Board will examine a Fifa proposal to revise the overall wording of the laws of the game "making them more concrete and easier to understand".