Brisbane Roar coach John Aloisi has called for a tougher stance and retrospective suspensions in the A-League for players caught simulating.
Aloisi’s calls come ahead of Roar’s Friday night match with Melbourne City, who sparked controversy last week when Neil Kilkenny was perceived to have play-acted after Adelaide’s Isaias brushes his opponent’s face with his palm.
Kilkenny’s City team-mate Bruno Fornaroli also provoked Perth Glory coach Kenny Lowe’s half-time verbal barrage aimed at the referees, after controversially earning his side a penalty a week earlier.
Aloisi said Football Federation Australia and A-League referees needed to do more to stamp out simulation from the game.
“I would like there to be,” Aloisi said, when asked about retrospective suspensions for simulation.
“If you review the game and someone has been going down and there’s simulation involved I’d like there to be someone suspended.
“You get suspended for a bad tackle and suspended for trying to hurt the opposition player. For me, this is just as bad.
“If there is that video review, I think it should be dealt with, if it’s not dealt with at that moment.”
The Roar coach also called for referees to book players during matches for simulation.
Simulation is currently a bookable offence but players are seldom cautioned during matches.
“If it’s someone that’s trying to get a foul it should be a yellow card if he goes down too easy,” Aloisi said.
“It’ll stop them next time. If they do it again it’s another yellow and they’re red carded.
“It’s one of those ones which has to be a strong stance.”
Aloisi added that diving wasn’t in the Australian culture and in this context it was a blight on the game’s progress domestically.
“I was in Europe for a long time. I know that certain countries you actually practice to go down a little bit easier,” he said.
“That’s not in the Australian culture. We don’t want it in our game. I’m sure that it’s been spoken about in the FFA.
“In the Australian culture, we don’t like it, we don’t want it.”
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