They get fouls called for it often. I think if they play through and don’t flop some of the time a foul might be ignored

Because it's beneficial for them and their team.

1. It alerts the referee to even the slightest touch that could be deemed a foul and sometimes even fools the ref into believing there is a foul when there was no contact. So this increases the chances of the team getting a free kick or a penalty

2. There's rarely any consequences for flopping or faking injury. Proving someone is not hurt is difficult and the player often waits for the team doctor to come on the pitch to asses their "injury" which makes it more believable and harder to conclude that they're entirely faking

3. A tackle causing an injury might mean that the referee feels like they should give a yellow or red card to the offending player.

In summary, they do it because even though it looks silly, the potential benefits massively outweigh the possible negative consequences.

I'm not saying this is right but this is just how football works these days

They do it to gain a tactical advantage, hoping the referee will make a favorable decision based on their acting ability.

I love soccer but I hate this bullshit. I wish that players were subject to after-the-match video review and suspension for simulating fouls.

This have evolved over time. Football players do struggle with life changing injuries in bad tackles. Since it is a game played primarily with ones feet a bad tackle may cause horrible leg injuries, smashed knees, etc. And there is little protective gear that works without hindering the players performance. So in order to reduce injuries there is a very strict no-contact policy that is enforced very harshly. This is to ensure that players pull out of potentially risky situations. The problem with this is that it is very hard for the referee to judge if there were contact or not and how hard the contact was. One of the few things they can look for is how injured the player is. If they are rolling around in pain it was probably some hard contact. But this is of course open to abuse. Players can fake injuries to get other players penalized. This is of course not allowed either but it is hard for the referee to judge these things. And when they need to enforce the no-contact rules in order to prevent injuries they do more often judge in the favor of the seemingly injured player.

People are working on reducing this issue though. It is possible to use camera replays to catch things the referee did not see. This does however take time and either slow down the game or is only available after the situation have been resolved. The cameras might not even catch the incident well, if the match even have a full complement of TV cameras. But it can help to give referees some advance notice for the next match. Or the players might get penalties between matches.

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1. Flopping happens in every sport where physical contact could be a foul

2. It happens a lot in soccer relative to other sports because if players do not fall down and continue the play, the ref may decide to “play advantage” ie let them continue and not whistle the play dead. Often times this is less advantageous than the free kick so the player goes to ground to get the ref to whistle.

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