Just when you thought the players gracing our Premier League had decided that they would stop auditioning for the London 2012 Games' diving competition and concentrate on their football, Liverpool's David Ngog comes along and produces the sort of manoeuvre that would do our young Olympic prodigy Tom Daley proud.

Yes, so perfect was the execution of the French striker's double twist I fully expected the television cameras to pan across to the judges' scores, where surely a resounding chorus of 'Ten! Ten! Ten!' would have greeted the effort.

OK, I think you get the point.

Last week I criticised the game's referees for getting a number of big decisions wrong and potentially condemning teams, like Liverpool's opponents on Monday, Birmingham City, to relegation.

Well, the same applies for the actions of these 'professionals' that play the game.

Perhaps it's actually an act of great intelligence, in that players are able to prey on the incompetence of the officials by conning them with their acrobatics. Perhaps it is a natural reaction for someone like Ngog, a relative stranger to our national game, to cope with the pressures of suffering a seventh defeat in nine games by throwing himself to the ground when the sight of an opponent's boot comes within view in the penalty area. Perhaps he thought it was worth the risk, knowing that if it came off he would move a step closer to a regular place in the team after scoring one and playing a key hand in the second goal of a crucial game.

I'm not buying it.

I know the same old line about these players being role models to kids is trotted out whenever an incident like this crops up, but it's true.

I can't quite imagine what aspiring young footballer would look to the Liverpool team and decide 'yes, I want to be just like David Ngog', as in my mind he has proved to be little more than an extra in the Torres and Gerrard show. But that's by the by – the fact is, children are brought up watching and playing football and they are likely to translate what they see onto the pitch.

I'm sure if you took a trip down to the local park to see the under-10s and 11s' games you would see the odd 'simulation', the odd theatrical dive, even the odd outburst to the referee, in an attempt to emulate the example set by Chelsea's Didier Drogba, amongst others.

The days of thunderous tackles and dirty tactics from the likes of Billy Bremner and Norman 'bite yer legs' Hunter are behind us. But we have been transported to the opposite side of the spectrum, where referees are far too busy with their whistle and diving and play-acting are commonplace. Three o'clock on a Saturday afternoon in the Premier League can be more reminiscent of a pantomime than a football match these days.

However, far from advocating a return to the wild west, where an elbow to the face was considered a run-of-the-mill challenge and a knee-high studs-up tackle was greeted with cries of 'get up, you pansy!', I believe we need to settle up somewhere between what went on then and what goes on now.

Ngog should be punished for his ridiculous, shameful act of cheating, of that there can be no doubt. But while there remain grey areas in the rules surrounding retrospective punishment and indeed the correct course of action to be taken against diving, individual cases must not be allowed to set a precedent. We have already seen what happens when governing bodies attempt to impose bans or fines on offending players retrospectively.

The witch-hunt of Arsenal striker Eduardo, when he committed a similar crime as that of Ngog against Celtic in a Champions League qualifier earlier this season, was unacceptable. Such was the uproar it caused, that UEFA took it upon themselves to ban the Croatia international for two games. However, seeing as there had been no consistency applied by Europe's governing body in similar previous incidents, the case was thrown out on appeal.

Yes, these players need to be punished. But a set of rules must first be put in place, with the consequences of such misdemeanours cast in stone, before any player is victimised and made an example of. It must be one rule for all, not one rule for one.

In my opinion, any dive, be it in the penalty area or elsewhere on the pitch, should be punishable in the form of a red card and an automatic three-game ban.

You may think that slightly harsh, as it carries the same consequences as a dangerous, career-threatening high challenge. But it is the only way to stamp out the problem for good and to help restore people's faith in football and the artists charged with validating its standing as the beautiful game.

What do you think about the behaviour of the Premier League's stars?

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