Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has agreed with UEFA and their right to ban Arsenal's Eduardo as he thinks that cheats need to be thrown out of the game of football.
Arsenal's Eduardo was given a two-match ban for conning the referee into giving Arsenal a vital penalty that killed Celtic's chances of making it a competitive tie in the Champions League play in round.
Sir Alex has openly declared his displeasure for players that deceive the referee into giving them a controversial decision that can decide a match - and that includes ex-Manchester United winger Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ronaldo was a player who often went to ground way to easily under the contact, but to his credit he would leave the game with bruises from all of the tackles he came under.
Catch-22
Although some players go to ground a bit to easily nowadays, there are times these players need protection from the no-nonsense type of player. If they do not go down easily, then they will have their legs knocked out from underneath them, and have the threat of a devastating injury.
Ronaldo, who was hated by every set of supporters besides United's, was very fortunate to not have suffered a serious injury on numerous occasions.
These tough tacklers are now few and far between, but Real Madrid took no chance and insured Ronaldo's legs for £90 million.
Collett
Manchester United had a starlet, Benjamin Collett, that had all the tools to become one of the game's top stars, but his career was cut short by Middlesbrough's Gary Smith.
Smith, who still plays football with Darlington, broke Collett's right leg as he came over the ball that left the United with no chance of ever appearing for the United first team.
Stance
While this is a strong stance by UEFA's disciplinary committee, it is a fair one. However, there might be a bit of a backlash and repercussions because of it.
They are now citing that replay can be used to deem if a player has cheated the referee to influence the outcome of a game.
Points for both sides are strong, because diving has become a huge part of some player's repertoire, and there are videos on the internet of teams practicing it(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQL-NV5qmBU).
There have been instances since, that player have dived and have received a yellow card, but Eduardo's two-match ban is equal to four yellow cards. It just so happened that it was another Arsenal player, Emanuel Eboue and Celtic's Aiden McGeady that were the players that received cards for simulation.
Case
Wayne Rooney was accused of diving to win a penalty against Arsenal, but as replays have showed there was contact made by goalkeeper Manuel Almunia, and the fact that he did not protest the call is clear sign that he knew he committed a foul.
There have been times when the tough Englishman has gone down a bit too easily under a challenge, but the case with him against Arsenal cannot be in question.
Debate
A major point is that referees are human and not everything can be caught with a human eye. With the money that is being thrown around in the sport now, it is imperative that they use or at least test the technology that is available.
Unlike American sports leagues, teams are relegated every season and it can set a team back years if they do not a solid business structure in place.
A dive or a missed decision can without question determine whether or not a team stays up or goes down, because there is such a fine line between success and failure.
Diving is a disgrace and a precedent like this needs to be set to get it out of the sport, but without television replays being used to challenge every play, it is hard to hold these every single player accountable.
Also, there needs to be protection for these players, because as mentioned before, there are players looking to end their career with a rash challenge.
