World football's governing body FIFA is hoping an appeal to players' consciences will stamp out the practice of diving and feigning injury to gain advantage by conning referees.
Detested in some countries and regarded as act of cunning in others, diving to win penalties and get opponents sent off has become ingrained in football almost everywhere.
Forwards have become increasingly adept at what is officially known as simulation, often provoking contact themselves yet somehow making it look the defender's fault.
Referees have been caught in the middle and have to judge in a split second whether a foul was genuine or enacted, often an impossible decision to make even with the use of slow motion replays.
With the World Cup looming and the stakes higher than ever, FIFA is hoping that it can appeal to the conscience of the players to stamp out a practice which many feel is ruining the game.
FIFA's head of refereeing Massimo Busacca says the game needs fair play and players can't win the game with simulation.
Busacca puts the rhetorical question: what are you to tell your children when you go home? "I won the game by simulation, it was cheating"?
Busacca's comments may sound idealistic, especially in the pressure-cooker atmosphere of a World Cup, but he's hopeful that players will listen.
In some cases, he says, players would even own up if a referee asked them what had happened.
On a positive note, Busacca says he believes that dangerously violent tackles have largely been eradicated from the game.
