Diving linesman facing punishment

A linesman in Chile has plunged football’s diving scourge to a new low after appearing to fake a leg injury when he was brushed by a ball.

Carlos Echeverria was helping to officiate a game between Huachipato and Palestino when a ball went flying in his direction and grazed his left thigh.

Though the impact appeared harmless it was enough to send Echeverria crumbling to the ground in agony, resulting in an immediate red card to Huachipato’s Angelo Sagal, who kicked the ball.

The incident drew howls of protest from Sagal’s teammates and may yet come back to haunt the linesman who is now being investigated by the body that oversees the league’s referees.

"We have analyzed the whole issue, we talked to the referee, in this case Claudio Puga, and will talk to Carlos Echeverria, and we obviously will take some resolution after having all the facts," Pablo Pozo, the chairman of the referee’s committee in Chile, said.

"Obviously overreaction is not something we like, it’s not something that we agree with, and that is a good topic that we are discussing and reviewing internally," he said.

The match ended 0-0.