It's not supposed to be a contact sport, and with the pitch being relatively large, the one good way to indicate an injury (or just pain) is to be on the ground.

Its unfortunately simply a successful tactic in the game with little downside.

Getting a penalty, especially one in a prime location or that would result in a penalty kick, is extremely valuable. Huge deal. The 'cost' of being caught faking, is that most fakes aren't caught, and if you get caught its generally not a big deal.

Its unfortunate, but its such a good tactic in the sport that you see it from youth up to the top pinnacle of players.

A short to say, the rules of the game make the benefit of making vastly more than the "loss" in getting caught faking.

Yes, everyone thinks the rule should change.

You didn't ask, but the NBA also has a flopping problem, which they also ignore.

You nailed the reason for why they do it: hoping to get a penalty call.

Presumably the drama is to sell it, maybe they think it makes the call more likely.

I've had the same question about why they don't end it. It makes the sport into a joke in the eyes of many potential fans. It would be very easy to eliminate. When I reffed kids traveling teams, an obvious fake like that was instantly a red card, therefore it almost never happened.

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It is indeed a contact sport, tackles — standing, sliding, and shoulders — are codified in the game and have been since inception. It is not a collision sport.

Why are there so many videos of a guy writhing in agony in the grass. Then his side scores a goal and he just gets up and runs to celebrate with his team? Clearly not injured and just pretending to be hurt?

Sure sometimes people get hurt, so they should lay down, but a lot of the time they are just straight up acting…

The idea behind flopping is to (a) create a foul out of nothing, (b) turn a borderline foul into a called foul, or (c) make sure an actual foul is called. The first should be fined or otherwise penalized, it's cheating. The third is fine with me, sometimes you need to call attention to a foul.

The middle one is difficult to regulate. On the one hand, I wish players would play through more borderline calls. On the other hand, I can see why they try to turn them into fouls, and there's enough there that it's hard to fine or penalize them for it.

I always assumed that, in addition to being a trick to try to get the other team in trouble, it was also a trick to get to sit down for a minute - soccer players run around A LOT.

I know it’s terrible, but I kind of like it. It’s the only real sport I can think of that incorporates drama class. Like, you can win by being good at soccer, but it also helps to be good at pretending, and everyone is in on the pretending what with the dumb little “healing spray” and all.

Hockey has a diving problem too.

NHL rule book.

64.1 Diving / Embellishment – Any player who blatantly dives, embellishes a fall or a reaction, or who feigns an injury shall be penalized with a minor penalty under this rule. A goalkeeper who deliberately initiates contact with an attacking player other than to establish position in the crease, or who otherwise acts to create the appearance of other than incidental contact with an attacking player, is subject to the assessment of a minor penalty for diving / embellishment. 64.2 Minor Penalty – A minor penalty shall be imposed on a player who attempts to draw a penalty by his actions (“diving / embellishment”).

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Why do they do it: a penalty, even a free kick outside the penalty area, can be incredibly advantageous. Getting an opposing player a yellow, or red, card is also helpful.

Why is it allowed: the sport has been hesitant to allow too many pauses to check computers, we have definitely seen that happen this world cup so far. But, if a referee catches a player intentionally faking they have and will reprimand them by giving them a yellow, or red, card. Two yellows and they automatically get a red card and their team will be down a player for the rest of the game. That and they usually cant play, at least, the next game.

As we get more technology involved, it may be more difficult to get away with cheating, but then, new methods to cheat may then evolve as well.

Yes, its true, they all need breaks so sometimes you see this in play, where someone just takes a lot of time and everyone gets some water. But this is also, kinda a mutual waterbreak, to a degree.

It can also be used as a time wasting tactic. The assistant referees at this years World Cup seem to have cracked down on this by adding on much more additional time after the normal 90 minutes. There was 9 additional minutes in the 2nd half of the US-Iran match. That’s an enormous amount of time. It’s typically between 3-5 minutes of additional time.

Surprisingly, diving in hockey (especially high level hockey) really isn't a big issue. You'd be surprised how often it actually gets called.

Refs in hockey, unlike NBA and football/soccer, are pretty empowered to make the decision to call a diving penalty, as such you see far less of it than you might otherwise see.

1-2 minutes isn't too uncommon if it was a half with a small amount of fouls/interruptions. The first half of the Brazil vs Switzerland match is a good example of it, with only an extra added minute.

Surprisingly, players such as Ray Bourque have endorsed diving because the penalties do not outweigh the rewards, and referees such as Kerry Fraser and Paul Stewart have stated that the rule is not applied properly or inconsistently called and there should be more embellishment penalties year after year than what are actually called.

It works. There are lots of plays that are fouls in football but that don't actually cause you to fall over or be in pain, but still cause you a disadvantage. If you don't fall over or feign injury, the referee feels less pressure to give a foul, and referees have a bias towards staying out of the game - "we didn't talk about the referee tonight, that means he had a good game" - is a saying.

Until referees grow enough of a spine to call fouls for things that look like nothing, this will always happen, because it will always help you win.

It can also break up the momentum of the game if the other team is doing well. Some managers essentially use it as a time out to talk to their players.

There is a competitive sdvantage to be gained by feigning injury or exaggerating a tackle. It's the same logic as claiming a corner or throw in when you know you shouldn't be awarded one. This exact same potential competitive advantage doesn't exist in other sports, but where one does people will attempt to manipulate it for their/their team's benefit. Like a player claiming they made a catch in the NFL when they know they weren't in bounds or when the ball grazed the turf first. Or when a QB makes sure the refs notice any late contact in the hopes of a roughing the passer call.

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To dispell the American perception of Soccer:

They're not flopping all the time. It's a contact sport and sometimes they get the wind knocked out of them or really fucked up. In this past MLS final the keeper of LAFC got a broken leg (and a red card for illegal contact) trying to stop Philly's striker by sliding into him. Look at pictures from the Brazil/Serbia game of Neymar's ankle. It's swollen to the size of a grapefruit. In the past week of just a handful of World Cup games I've watched, I've seen dudes get kicked in the face, head, and dick. People ramming into each other at full speed. And getting cleated anywhere fucking sucks. There's a player for Wolverhampton that's still wearing a brace for a fractured skull and that motherfucker is still playing. Some games are physical slogs, it can actually get real nasty.

Now. As to why they'll flop and/or feign injury:

1. fishing for fouls. And sometimes you kind of need to do it because you were fouled but referees are pants on head stupid.

2. Time wasting. I like to say a team is 20 seconds away from scoring at any point in the match. You're up by 1 goal and it's the final 5 minutes? Got some rough contact? Better go to ground to burn the clock (and take a little break). It's not even the main method of time waisting. If you're up a goal, and you get a set piece (corner, goal kick, free kick, throw in, etc.) You taaake youuur tiiiime.

I'll say this: if you actually watch a game, they really don't flop as much as my fellow Americans like to think they do. They spend most of the time, you know... Playing the game. And it's exciting to watch because there's always something happening instead of people standing around or commercials every 30 seconds like with NFL and baseball.

There are rules for egregious flops. Simulation (faking illegal contact) gets ya carded. And the practice of flopping ain't going away. It's part of the tactics of the game, really. Not that they practice it in training or anything. And like I said, it's not like every bit of contact results in a player dropping to the ground and playing hurt. They go at each other hard most of the time. The only protection they have are shin guards. The rest of the body is exposed to abuse. You get tripped up while you're sprinting, it's going to hurt. Dude steps on you literally anywhere, it's going to hurt. NFL players have the luxury of play stopping for a minute between plays to walk it off when their bell gets rung. Soccer players don't. Hell, the game even keeps going if there's a man down. They won't stop play unless he doesn't get up for a while. Or if it was contact to the head.