Football
Chris Wright, Toe Poke writer 7y

Swedish second-division club Osters IF vow to punish players for diving

Swedish football club Osters IF have announced that they will ban their own players if they are caught diving.

The club's own board of directors announced this week that they were fed up at seeing players attempting to con match officials and launched a new initiative to help stamp out diving within their ranks.

The second-tier side said that with the subject of diving and play-acting making headlines after Barcelona's comeback against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, they have vowed to punish any of their players who are guilty of simulating or exaggerating fouls.

"It primarily applies to the clear situations where someone is looking for a penalty and there's no contact, or similar," Osters chief executive Johan Lindberg told The Local.

"We need to find fair ways to make these judgements so we don't pick out a player as a cheater when the person isn't. On the other hand, if we get a [Luis] Suarez or [Real Madrid defender] Pepe in the group, we won't be scared to act accordingly.

"We'll be different from the big clubs -- if you look for example at the Barcelona-PSG match -- and take an official stance for our players by acting rather than quietly accepting it."

Speaking to Aftonbladet, Lindberg also confirmed that he would actively oppose Osters signing any players with a track record of diving.

"I'd explain [to the new signing] how we want them to be, what we expect from a player in the starting XI, and that we do not tolerate certain things," he added.

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