I remember in one African Nations Cup competition some years ago, the authorities decided to dish out yellow cards for diving and play-acting on a strict basis. Sure, there were many yellow cards to begin with and a lot of moaning, but the teams began to behave themselves after a while. You got to the situation that players didn't go down even if they were touched, for fear of being themselves penalised. Sure, it was controversial and sometimes there were harsh decisions, but I actually thought that it eventually got the result needed, in that play-acting was severely reduced and games flowed. Then the authorities decided to give in to pressure, and didn't follow on with the experiment. The problem with diving and play-acting is so ingrained that it needs something drastic to stamp it out.