Pulis calls for divers to be punished

Stoke boss Tony Pulis reacted to Luis Suarez's admission of diving against the Potters by repeating his call for a Football Association clampdown on simulation.

Liverpool striker Suarez could be facing sanctions from his club after admitting in a television interview to deliberately "falling" in an attempt to win a penalty in the 0-0 Barclays Premier League home draw with Stoke in October. They were comments Reds manager Brendan Rodgers described as "unacceptable".

Uruguay international Suarez, who neither earned a spot-kick nor was punished for his actions at the time, was the subject of fierce criticism from Pulis after the match, with the Welshman branding Suarez's conduct "an embarrassment" and calling on the FA to hand him a three-match ban.

Pulis had already spoken out on the issue of simulation earlier in the season and when asked about it again in relation to the Suarez situation, he said: "They should look at it on a Monday after the games have been played at the weekend, and people who have been caught simulating should be punished.

"I think if you do that - if you give them three, four or five games or whatever - then it will take it out of the game.

"With simulation, I think if a player is found blatantly diving to gain an advantage, whether it is a penalty or conning a referee into giving a decision, they should be dealt with very severely. What you would find is that it would soon stop, and that is what we all want, because it is, on a lot of occasions, cheating."

One case which Pulis has no doubt constituted "cheating" came last Saturday in Southampton's 1-0 victory at Aston Villa.

Southampton's winning goal came from a penalty awarded when their frontman Jay Rodriguez went down in the box - with replays indicating that no contact had been made on him before he hit the turf.

Pulis highlighted that incident, saying: "In my opinion, the Southampton lad dives and gets a penalty.

"(Villa manager) Paul Lambert took a hell of a lot of stick from the supporters for losing that game of football, and he has not lost it, I personally think, in an honest way. The system isn't right - that shouldn't be allowed. That player should be brought to task and punished for cheating, because that is what he did."

Source : http://www.football.co.uk/stoke_city/pulis_calls_for_divers_to_be_punished_rss3668715.shtml