Everyone who has ever seen a professional game of soccer knows what faking an injury means. On the top level, players use this tactic all the time to gain an advantage. Some players are worse than others, but more or less any player will do it from time to time. Let me be clear about one thing, faking an injury in soccer is cheating and I don’t like it at all.

When shown in slow motion it usually looks stupid, but it is amazing how often it works. Of course, the players are running the risk of being booked themselves, but if they manage to get a penalty or a red card to the other team it might be worth it.

The video below shows a lot of situations where players are faking injuries. Some of them are funny, some just embarrassing.

Why Do Professional Soccer Players Always Fake Injuries?

Terminology

In soccer different word are used to describe what is more or less the same action. It is no different for faking injuries. I bet you have heard about players diving. Or maybe you have heard about foul simulation? A third word used is flopping. These words are, together with faking injuries, all mean the same thing. To sum up, we have four words that can be used to describe faking an injury:

• Foul Simulation
• Diving
• Flopping
• Injury Faking

Why Professional Soccer Players Fake Injuries

So, the question is why do soccer players dive? The short answer is that they do it to gain an advantage. There are different kinds of advantages that can be gained. Below I have outlined 6 different reasons to fake injuries that soccer players often use.

1. To Trick the Referee Into Giving Yellow or Red Cards

If a player can trick the referee into giving a player on the other team a red card, it will e a huge advantage. Everyone can understand that it is much harder to play 10 against 11 than 11v11.

Even faking an injury so that the opponent gets a yellow card can be a big advantage. Once he has the yellow card, he needs to be careful for the rest of the match so he does not get sent of. If a player already has a yellow card there is a prime opportunity to fake an injury after a duel to make the referee show him the second yellow card.

2. To Gain a Penalty Kick

This is the most obvious reason to dive. It is done all the time. If you have ever watched a game of soccer you have probably seen a player feign an injury to get a penalty kick. Statistically 76% of penalty kicks at the professional level is is converted into a goal. Soccer is a low scoring game, in contrast to sports like basketball and handball. Therefore it is extremely valuable for a team to get a 76% chance of scoring. Getting that penalty can and will often determine the outcome of the match.

Also, for the referee it is often hard to determine if a player dives or if it is a foul. There are usually lots of players inside the penalty area and the speed of the action is often very high.

3. To Get a Free Kick

When a player recognizes that his chances of scoring a goal or passing to a teammate, he might decide that his best option is to construct a free kick. Free kicks close to the other teams goal is often a decent opportunity to score. By doing so he can also deny the opponents possession.

4. To Frustrate the Other Team’s Players

There are very few things in soccer that is so frustrating as opponents who fake injuries all the time. In some cases it may lead to players losing their concentration and doing more mistakes.

5. To Waste Time

When teams lead at the end of tight matches many teams and players take advantage of the possibility to stay down after the ball is out of play. By doing this they achieve two things: 1. the clock moves closer to the final whistle and 2. The team gets a chance to rest so that they are ready to do their best in the last part of the game.

6. To Make the Referee Think That he has Been Unfair to the Team

This is a next level trick. Players at the top level are very aware of the referees perception of balance in decisions. It happens more often than most people think that a referee feels that he has given one of the teams to many favorable decisions. In those cases it may be easier for the other team to get free kicks, penalties, etc.

By faking injuries, players can make the referee doubt his decisions. Of course, this might backfire if a player is bad at diving and faking.

Does it Only Happen in Top Level Soccer?

The short and clear answer is no. Faking injuries happens at all levels. You can even see it at youth level sometimes. Having in mind that most fans (and players) don’t like the excessive faking, it should be clear that no one wants children to pick up the sleazy tactics of faking.

How to Spot When a Player is Faking

If it were easy to spot, it wouldn’t make any sense trying to trick the referee. The best refs in the world are clearly good at spotting dives, but even they get it wrong quite often. It is easy to watch the replay in slow motion from you living room chair and claim that the ref should have that it was a dive, but it is harder to actually see it in real time.

There are situations where it is so obvious that anyone can see that someone is faking, but even at the art of faking players get better by the day.

What Happens if a Player Get Caught Faking?

The punishment for trying to deceive the ref by faking an injury is a yellow card. 

A lot of people in and around soccer feels that it is a mild punishment. And i can understand their arguments. Just imagine a situation where if the ref gets the decision wrong (as in the faking succeeds), a team gets a red card or a penalty against. A really hard blow for an innocent team. If the ref gets it right, the villain get off with a yellow card. That’s no more than a slap on the wrist. It seems a bit unbalanced.

The problem for the rule makers is that if they adopt stricter rules, for example a red card for diving, there will be a bunch of situations where players gets sent off without doing any faking. In other words, they can’t fix a problem by introducing another problem.

Not all Diving is to Gain an Advantage

One important point that needs to be said about faking injuries is that it is not always to gain an advantage. Some players, often players that dribble a lot, run a much higher risk of actually getting injured by opponents. In fact, some studies show that 90% of all fouls in soccer are committed by players trying to avoid getting hurt. This is a very important point because many fans of the game believe that all fouls are intentional. They are not. At least half of them are unintentional. Also, fans of the game often complain that some players get away with murder. This is also not true. If it were, there would be fewer games won every week and less enjoyment for the millions of people who watch soccer.

Faking Injuries and VAR

Soccer has always been a game of traditions. Changes to the game always take a long time. Compared to other sports, soccer has been really slow to introduce much needed help to the referees. 

In the recent years Video Assistant Referee (VAR) has been introduced in the biggest soccer competitions across the world. For faking injuries, it has been really helpful for referees. These days we don’t see the absolute worst faking that we did just a few years ago. It is not perfect however, as VAR can only be involved in situations that leads to a goal, a penalty or red cards situations.

Top 5 Worst Divers in Soccer

1. Neymar jr.

At his best one of the absolute best players in the world. Blinding technique, fantastic dribbling and well places finishes are all word that can be used to describe Neymar.

However, he has also gained a reputation for diving way to much. During the 2018 World Cup in Russia, his diving got a lot of attention. This led to a world-wide phenomenon where youth coaches would yell “Neymar” in the middle of a training session and every player would fall down and pretend that they were injured.

When you engage the majority of youth soccer teams in the world with your diving, you deserve a top spot on this list.

2. Luis Suarez

This players has one of the worst reputations in soccer. As a player he could be absolutely fantastic. One of his biggest strengths was his desire to win. This was, however, also one of his worst traits. If i took cheating to win a game, he would cheat.

When he played for Liverpool, he often got in trouble for unsportsmanlike behavior. More often than not, this behavior was diving. He got heavily criticized by both fans, media and opposing teams. In one of his games, he responded to the critics by celebrating a goal by diving.

All of his diving has been somewhat overshadowed by his biting episodes. Yes, that’s right. He did bite an opponent. Not once. Not twice. He did it three times.

3. Cristiano Ronaldo

By many considered the best, or the second best, soccer player of all time. He has scored an incredible amount of goals in his career and is, at his best, an attraction on the pitch. There is, however, a dark side to Cristiano Ronaldo as well.

For many, Cristiano Ronaldo is the poster boy of diving. Some actually argue that the diving and cheating is what separates him from Lionel Messi as the Greatest Of All Time.

4. Dele Alli

Dele Alli has had a roller coaster career. He has had fantastic seasons, and he has had seasons where no one understands what he is doing in the Premier League.

He also has a reputation for diving a lot. Check out the hilarious video below made by Jim Daly for a good laugh.

5. Jamie Vardy

He will always be a hero in Leicester after their incredible Premier League win against all odds. But even a fan favorite like Vardy has a reputation for going down easy.

During a game against Southampton in 2019, TV pundit Jermaine Jenas commented on of Vardys dives: “It’s shocking, it really is. Jamie Vardy has had question marks over him at times for the way that he goes over but this one is clear as day.I am sorry, but I thought we were trying to cut diving out of the game.”

In 2016, he got sent off during a game against West Ham for receiving his second yellow card for diving.

Why Don’t Female Soccer Players Fake Injuries?

If you are watching a lot of men’s soccer, you will be stunned at how much less diving and cheating it is in women’s soccer. My theory to why is that women value fairness and sport(wo)manship more than men, but that is just speculation on my part.

What is true without a doubt, is that men can learn a lot from women when it comes to playing the game fair.

Why do Soccer Players Fake Injuries – Summary

• Faking an injury in soccer is cheating
• Faking an injury, flopping, diving and foul simulating means roughly the same thing
• There are six reasons why soccer players fake injuries: Gain a penalty kick, gain a free kick, yellow or red card to the opponent, to waste time, frustrate the other team and to influence the ref into giving more favorable decisions.
• It happens at all levels in soccer
• Spotting a dive is really hard, even for professionals
• If a player is caught faking, he gets a yellow card
• VAR has helped get rid of some diving
• Female soccer players don’t dive nearly as much as men

If you liked this post, you might also like my post about Clean Sheets in soccer or the post named Why Is Soccer So Popular?