FA will use video to ban cheats like David Ngog

David Ngog’s outrageous dive against Birmingham City could lead to a major change in the way the English game is governed.

The Football Association are ready to act after a series of damaging incidents – highlighted by Sportsmail’s campaign against diving cheats.

the FA are now looking to make a significant change to their own rulebook, allowing them to take action against players such as Ngog.

At present, the FA follow FIFA’s regulations in refusing to punish players retrospectively who are shown to have cheated through diving.

The Liverpool striker won a crucial penalty on Monday night when he went down as
Birmingham midfielder Lee Carsley slid in to challenge. His action, which led to Steven Gerrard converting the penalty to earn under-pressure Liverpool a 2-2 draw, has been condemned across the game.

FA officials recognise the damage such incidents inflict on the sport and are mindful that UEFA have banned cheats on the basis of video evidence. Europe’s ruling body banned the Arsenal striker Eduardo after he dived against Celtic, before reversing the decision.

Dann, a lifelong Liverpool fan, said: ‘The only way you can stop it is to suspend cheats and it is up to the FA to sort it out.

‘Rules can be changed to clean up football and this is something that needs to be addressed and people have to be punished heavily. Everyone who saw it knew it was a dive. It was so obvious.’

Match referee Peter Walton will be asked to explain his decision to award the penalty at a special meeting of referees called to deal with what is a growing crisis in the game.

Referees’ chief Keith Hackett said: ‘I will be sitting down with Peter on a one-to-one basis, as well as in a group format, to see how we can best deal with this problem so that errors are reduced.

‘We will go through what the referee could have done to avoid this error.’