Ref conned again

Watched last night's Caley v Aberdeen highlights and was sickened to see a ref conned again for Caley's penalty. This is now more or less a weekly occurrence. For me, it is spoiling football

It was Willie Collum this time who gave a penalty to a diving striker against a defender who'd made no contact. Why can't refs take a moment to think about what they've just seen, to consult linesman and fourth official , check if anyone has had a better view of the incident. No, no there's Collum immediately pointing to the spot giving Caley the penalty, committing a grave injustice to Aberdeen in their bid to snatch the title from Celtic

Surely we could copy the rugby world here and refer these incidents to the expert in the studio - an ex-ref presumably - who quickly reviews the incident from all the angles the match ref has not seen, and come up with the correct verdict. In rugby it hardly takes any time at all, and correct decisions are made, and cheats exposed immediately, and dealt with immediately

Plus, when you consider the dafter punishments the football authorities have dreamt up over the past few years...automatic red for raising 'your hands to somebody'.... (oooh scary!).....yellow card for overcelebrating a goal....(dreadful behaviour!) surely a yellow card at such a game-changing incident is not enough punishment/disincentive. Personally I want an automatic red card for divers who have been proved by the replay cameras to have committed their diving act/simulation inside the box in an attempt to win a penalty, where there was clearly no contact. Cameras in the studio showing no pen, automatic red for the diver - would quickly stop the practice for the betterment of football

And, if fewer managers condoned the practice - as John Hughes obviously does, although he gets mad when some other team's diver commits the offence agaist Caley - then that might also help. Instead of cr*p like he came away with last night along the lines of 'we were a bit lucky with the penalty'.....'time we got some of the breaks'...and made it clear to his player that this aspect has to be cut out of his game, and that Caley do not want to be seen to be winning points by cheating etc etc then maybe we'd see less of it

The truth is almost every team in Scotland has its known diver(s), fans know who they are, journalists know who they are, their own managers know who they are. For so many reasons it has to stop. I find it difficult to watch a live game on telly now. Instead of enjoying the skill and the drama on view, I'm roaring at some cheating tw*t who's conned another useless referee. My heart and blood pressure can't take much more