When is a Dive a Dive?

When is a dive a dive?

Is it when a player either simulates contact, exaggerates contact or invites contact?

Or is it perhaps when it is carried out by Liverpool's Luis Suarez?

Its an interesting thing this diving debate that has been initiated largely by Tony Pulis, coach of Stoke City in the English Premiership.

And just as in the issue of racism, it is again centered around Luis Suarez who is again being made the scapegoat...

Does Suarez dive? Based on the above three examples, absolutely!

But so does everybody!

When a defender shield's the ball, ostensibly inviting a contact and then falls over at the faintest of touches, is that a dive?
If your answer is no, how is that different from an attacking player leaving a trailing leg, to invite a tackle?

Here is ex-Liverpool player Michael Owen speaking to BBC:

"I was running flat out, got a nudge, went down. Could I have stayed up? Yeah, probably." "Four years later I got a penalty, again against Argentina, and again I could have stayed on my feet."
He continues: "It's a skill to get someone one-on-one or isolated. No-one is for blatantly diving, but there is a part of a striker, of anyone, that actually tries to entice the leg to come out to try to win the penalty. Source
But there is more to it than this:

If a player exaggerates a foul in order to bring it to the notice of a referee, is that also a dive, and should he be punished? Does the fact of his exaggeration make the foul against him no longer valid?

What about the referee who repeatedly ignores the kind of violent tactics and thuggery that has been institutionalized by the likes of Tony Pulis at Stoke, all in the name of 'getting stuck in' and winning games?

Do such referees not in themselves invite such exaggeration?

What about a player who dives in anticipation, or to get out of the way of a tackle, as Dani Alves might have done against Pepe in the Champions League two seasons ago?

If it is adjudged a dive, simulation or exaggeration, how should he then have conducted himself? Leave his legs in place in order to prove it was a foul?

If a player's pimary responsibility to his team is to maximize every advantage, should he be expected to act any differently?

In this respect, is such a player any different from  a coach like the aforementioned Tony Pulis who seeks to employ violent tactics to gain an advantage for his team?

The point here is that it is an easy subject to rail against, especially if such a 'crusade' had Luis Suarez in the center!

Afterall nobody ever crusaded against diving when the likes of Owen was winning penalties for England, or Rooney for United. Heck, it even became a joke, and a damn good one, when Klinsman was at Spurs!

But the reality is a whole different ball game.

In the past, no less a person as Arsene Wenger has advocated the use of a 'superior committee of ethics' to retroactively punish a player who dives in the box.

It appears that gymnastics might yet have a role in football!