Quote Originally Posted by Burney View Post
The difference is that ball tampering - if discovered - results in serious punishment. The cheating that takes place in football (fouling, timewasting, diving, handball, etc, etc) is simply an intrinsic part of the game. That difference means the two things cannot be meaningfully compared.
Right. The mere suggestion of harsh punishment for "cheats" in football is always met with "Yes, but if you banned all the players that cheated, there'd be hardly any players left."

Which is completely the wrong way about, of course; you'd actually be left with only players who didn't cheat