I can’t believe I’m writing this on an Arsenal blog of all places but former Manchester United captain and current Ipswich Town boss Roy Keane has spoken some wise words this week. When asked whether Eduardo should be awarded a two game ban for diving against Celtic the man who is as famous for his dog ‘walking’ as his football said it would be “harsh” on the player to award him such a ban as it is so common in modern football.

If we’re being honest it looks pretty clear from replays that the Brazilian/Croatian did in fact take a tumble. But as Keane points out it is such a common aspect of today’s game that it is unbelievably unlucky for Eduardo to be the first man to be really pulled up on it. With all the focus that has been on this particular incident the striker has probably already made a name for himself among referees and they’re going to be much more cynical when making judgements regarding him from now on anyway.

Eduardo has now been charged and if he is indeed given a ban by the footballing authorities it begs the question of how far players could be banned for ‘simulation’, by that I mean tricking the referee. How many times during the course of the season do you see a player go down as if expertly picked off by a sniper only to get up and take the resulting free kick in no visible sign of pain? Should those players also be awarded two game bans? Somehow I think not and that would be very hard to police.

In all fairness to Eduardo the way Artur Boruc came out at him it looked certain the Celtic keeper was going to get a slight touch on the Gunners man and if he had it would have been a penalty. Boruc did extremely well to stop himself and unlucky the penalty was awarded but that kind of thing happens all the time in football. The fact it was a high-profile game has not helped matters and the chief executive of the SFA weighing in with his comments has done Eduardo no favours either.

I’m not condoning Eduardo’s actions and if I’m being honest I don’t think that kind of ‘gamesmanship’ was necessary in getting past Celtic anyway. I mean no disrespect to the Scottish side but they never really looked like causing an upset and Arsenal barely got out of first gear. It was harsh on Celtic to concede such a goal but every side concedes contentious goals over the course of the season and in many cases it can change the outcome of the match. It is my firm belief that Eduardo taking a dive did not alter the outcome of this tie in any degree at all except that Arsenal won by a larger margin, which in the grand scheme of things is basically irrelevant.

On the positive side a two game ban for Eduardo may not be the disaster it could have been. With no disrespect intended towards AZ Alkmaar, Olympiakos and Standard Liege the draw could have been much harder and it may not be such a huge loss if he is banned from the competition for the first two games. It would be a massive personal blow for Eduardo if he was pulled up on this, especially after returning from injury, as it has been going on for years and I had hoped common sense would prevail. Now he has been charged it remains to be seen what the punishment will be but it looks as if he is facing a two game ban.

On a final note, and it might be considered a radical thought. Instead of banning players for diving why not introduce video technology so decisions can be made in game? If you think about it what good does it do Celtic now if Eduardo is banned? No good at all as far as I can see, if the decision had been right in the match maybe (probably not though) it would have helped them out. If the video technology was there perhaps players wouldn’t be tempted to take a dive in the first place. As you can probably tell I’m all in favour of using technology to help referees out, I just wish UEFA and FIFA agreed with me.