Diving ban for Richarlison would be laughable says Watford's Marco Silva

There is scope for the Football Association to review the decision on Monday and to ban the Brazilian winger

Richarlison could face retrospective action this week (Getty)

Watford manager Marco Silva believes that any potential punishment for his winger Richarlison for an alleged dive this week would be laughable.

Richarlison earned Watford the crucial penalty kick against Arsenal on Saturday after a collision with Hector Bellerin. Arsene Wenger condemned the decision as “scandalous” and “a creation of the referee” afterwards.

There is scope for the Football Association to review the decision on Monday and to ban Richarlison if a three-person panel unanimously decides that he deceived the referee in going down.

Former referee Graham Poll said on television after the game that it was “as clear an example as you can see”.

But the FA will have to review the incident – as they do with all incidents of alleged simulation – before deciding whether to convene the panel.

Silva, however, laughed when asked how he would react if Richarlison was slapped with a retrospective two-game ban.

“Only to smile,” he then said. “Because you need to see again all the games from the Premier League this season, maybe you’ll find 10, 20 [incidents] like this one.”

Silva added that Richarlison was the most-fouled player in the league and that officials should be doing more to protect players like him.