For his blatant dive against Celtic in Champions League qualifying on Wednesday, Arsenal striker Eduardo deserves to be punished. He’s already been vilified by the press and figures to get loads of boos when his Croatia faces England in a World Cup qualifier at Wembley this month.

But forgetting the implications of UEFA imposing a ban using video evidence for a second, let’s point out the hypocrisy of the situation. Plain and simple, when English players go down in the box, the word “dive” is very rarely used.

Heck, that was proved a day after the Eduardo brouhaha, at Villa Park in Birmingham. Twice in the first half, Aston Villa winger Ashley Young collapsed in the box against Rapid Vienna in the Europa League, performing a mock breaststroke, and the referee bought it. The first one was a blatant dive; on the second, Young went down with minimal contact to his shoulder. Announcers who called the match live on Channel 5 didn’t seem too bothered, and at halftime nary a second was spent examining both incidents. The presenter was simply happy Villa led – so much for unbiased coverage. Thankfully justice was done and Rapid advanced on away goals.

Everton’s Tony Hibbert performed a similar dive last week in the box against Burnley (he didn’t get a card), Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard goes down in the box when given the gentlest of taps, and Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney has won more than a few dubious penalties, none more so than his effort that effectively led to Arsenal’s 49-game unbeaten streak in the league ending in 2005. Fulham striker Andy Johnson also has a dodgy past, although he’s received his fair share of criticism.

Since Rooney and Gerrard are vital cogs on the English national team, they get away with it. A diver is a diver, no matter where he comes from. Or at least that’s how it should be.