10 Worst Ever Premier League Refereeing Mistakes

10. Gareth Bale's Unpunished Dive, 2012

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVYfuIUJtBA Gareth Bale is the most-booked player for diving in the Premier League era, with the former Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur star entering the referee's notebook seven times for simulation. During his stay in England, Bale earned himself a nasty reputation for throwing himself to ground a little too easily, and arguably the worst of his dives, and one of the worst refereeing decisions in the Premiership, took place in 2012. In a topflight game vs Aston Villa two years ago, Bale took advantage of some seriously sloppy Villa defending in the middle of the park by using his breakneck pace to chase down a loose ball. Seeing the danger, goalkeeper Brad Guzan races out of his penalty area to try and salvage the situation, only for the Spurs star to go down like a ton of bricks. A first glance may show you Guzan making contact, but replays show he was nowhere near Bale, who tripped over thin air. Neil Swarbrick, the referee at the time, got this badly wrong. Bale's blatant dive was clearly engineered to get Guzan sent off, considering he was the last man, and yet Swarbrick didn't even caution the Welshman. If it's not a foul, it's a dive - it cannot be anything else, and Bale should have seen a yellow card for a dive that was so theatrical he'd give Leonardo DiCaprio a run for his money.
Contributor
Contributor

Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.