Thursday 4 October 2018 23:48, UK
Sean Dyche insists not enough is being done to prevent diving in football and says he has warned to stop talking about cheating.
Burnley's 2-1 win over Cardiff on Sunday focused attention on time-wasting in the sport, with the ball in play for just 42 minutes and two seconds - a seven-year low for the Premier League.
However, Clarets boss Dyche believes diving should be a much higher priority for football authorities.
"If you are going to sort the game out, stop cheating," said Dyche. "End of story. Does everyone agree that the World Cup was a farce for cheating? Everyone must agree that.
"I don't care where you come from in the world, you must have sat there and thought, 'Oh my goodness, this has gone crazy'.
"Now in the Premier League, [players] dive and they don't give anything. There's no retribution afterwards, no FA charge, nothing.
"More and more people are going down again. But there's less noise about it because the referee doesn't book anyone. It's just happening because no one wants to deal with it.
"If you blank it, eventually they think it will go away, but it won't go away because it's a free shot. Players think, 'Even better, I'll go every time because what's the worst that will happen?' The worst that can happen is no card, no sanction, no players bother anymore, no fans bother anymore.
"I can't believe it, the beautiful game, cheating everywhere. How can this be right and no-one wants to change it?"
Dyche says he has been instructed by the football authorities to stop talking about cheating.
"I got told to stop using the word and I said absolutely not. Because that's what it is," he said.
"The irony is you could turn it into a real positive if they said, 'We're the Premier League and we're not having it'. That's a brilliant, positive statement to millions of children around the world.
"There was one the other night, I nearly lost it. I nearly texted [referees chief] Mike Riley because it was that bad. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
"Four yards from the referee. I thought if you're not going to do anything about that, then this will never end."
Dyche believes Burnley have been made to pay for their honest approach in the Premier League.
"The irony is we've not had a penalty in the Premier League for 16 months," he added. "The referee is now looking for the dive to pre-suppose he's been fouled.
"I would never say our team is whiter than white because I can never guarantee one of our team wouldn't do something like that. But on a scale of one to 100, we would be quite near the bottom of the scale of people falling over."
