Simulation (Diving)

Simulation is an attempt to deceive the referee, for example by feigning injury or pretending to have been fouled. It is cautionable as unsporting behaviour. The test is the attempt to deceive, not the presence or absence of contact.^6, ^7, ^8, ^9, ¹⁵

Key points

✓Simulation is a caution for unsporting behaviour, and the offence is attempting to deceive the referee^8, ⁹
✓Feigning injury and pretending to have been fouled are the two examples the clause gives^8, ^9, ¹⁵
✓Contact or its absence is evidence of deception, not the test itself: a player who falls over with nobody near them has not deceived anyone until they claim a foul^8, ^9, ¹⁵
✓Light contact does not license a fall. Exaggerating it is itself the deception^8, ⁹
✓A free kick and a caution can both follow one incident, where a real offence was met with a grossly disproportionate reaction^5, ^8, ⁹
✓VAR cannot review a caution. Simulation reaches the VAR only through a goal, a penalty decision or a red card^1, ^2, ^3, ⁴
✓Where it does, it is usually as an attacking team offence in the build-up to the goal or the penalty incident^10, ^11, ^12, ¹³
✓The replay-speed guidance is the VAR's: slow motion for facts, normal speed for the intensity of an offence and for handball¹⁴

Read the full rule

Scenarios

Scenario 1

Light contact used to win a penalty

No penalty

An attacker feels a slight touch from a defender inside the area and throws themselves to the ground dramatically.

Correct call: No penalty, and a caution for simulation. The touch was not an offence and the fall was staged to make the referee think it was, which is pretending to have been fouled.

Common mistake: Awarding the penalty because there was some contact. Contact is not a defence to simulation, because what is being punished is the attempt to deceive rather than the fall.

Law^5, ^8, ⁹

Scenario 2

Attacker runs into stationary defender

No foul

An attacker dribbles toward a defender who is standing still with arms tucked. The attacker runs into them and falls.

Correct call: No foul. The defender did nothing careless, reckless or with excessive force, so there is no offence to punish. Whether the attacker is also cautioned turns on whether they were trying to deceive the referee, which running into someone is not on its own.

Common mistake: Giving a foul because the attacker fell. Also cautioning automatically: a player who initiates contact and falls has not necessarily attempted to deceive anyone.

Law^5, ^8, ⁹

Scenario 3

Attacker trips over own feet and appeals

No penalty

An attacker loses their footing with no defender nearby, then rolls and appeals for a penalty.

Correct call: Caution for simulation. Losing your footing is not an offence, but appealing for a foul that nobody committed is pretending to have been fouled.

Common mistake: Booking for the fall rather than the appeal. If the player simply gets up and plays on there is nothing to caution, because there was no attempt to deceive.

Law^8, ⁹

Scenario 4

Suspected dive in the area, play waved on

No penalty

A player appears to dive in the penalty area. The referee waves play on and the VAR checks the incident.

Correct call: The reviewable decision is penalty or no penalty, not the caution. If the check leads to a review and the referee confirms no penalty because the player simulated, the caution follows from that; the yellow card is never the thing being reviewed.

Common mistake: Describing this as VAR recommending a booking. The categories are goal, penalty, red card, mistaken identity and an incorrectly awarded corner, and a caution is not among them.

Law^1, ^3, ^12, ¹³

Scenario 5

Genuine contact but exaggerated reaction

Foul

A defender makes contact with an attacker's ankle. The attacker spins dramatically and falls holding their face.

Correct call: The free kick stands if the contact was an offence, and the attacker can still be cautioned. The reaction created a false impression of what happened, which is unsporting behaviour on its own.

Common mistake: Treating it as a choice between the two. One incident can produce a free kick against the defender and a caution for the attacker.

Law^5, ^8, ^9, ¹⁵

The full rule

Law 12 names simulation inside the list of cautions for unsporting behaviour, and it names it by what the player is doing rather than by what the defender did: a player must be cautioned who "attempts to deceive the referee, e.g. by feigning injury or pretending to have been fouled". The Glossary says the same thing in general terms, an action which creates a wrong or false impression that something has occurred when it has not, committed to gain an unfair advantage. So the question a referee is answering is not whether there was contact, and it is not whether the contact was enough to cause the fall. Those are evidence, sometimes strong evidence, for the question that is actually being asked, which is whether this player was trying to deceive. That matters in both directions. A player who goes down under light contact and exaggerates is simulating, because the exaggeration is the deception, and a foul and a caution can both follow from one incident where a real offence was met with a grossly disproportionate reaction. A player who simply loses their footing with nobody near them has not deceived anyone by falling over, and only becomes cautionable if they then claim a foul. Two things are commonly said about simulation that the Laws do not say. VAR cannot review a caution: the reviewable categories are goal or no goal, penalty or no penalty, a red card, mistaken identity and a clearly incorrectly awarded corner, and a yellow card is not among them. Simulation reaches the VAR only where it bears on one of those, most often as an attacking team offence in the build-up to a goal or to a penalty incident, and the caution then follows from correcting that decision rather than being the subject of the review. And the guidance about replay speed is the VAR's rather than the referee's, and is about facts against intensity: slow-motion replays should in general be used only for facts such as the position of an offence or player and the point of contact, while normal speed should be used for the intensity of an offence or for deciding whether there was a handball offence.^1, ^2, ^3, ^4, ^6, ^7, ^8, ^9, ^10, ^11, ^12, ^13, ^14, ¹⁵