Unfortunately, football has become a sport where diving or 'simulation' is now common practice. In order to get a free-kick or win a penalty, several players, perhaps most notably Didier Drogba and Cristiano Ronaldo, perform theatrical dives much to the aggravation of the opposition team. However, a team of designers has now developed and manufactured anti-dive shin pads to stop players cheating.

These futuristic shin pads have in-built sensory magnets that trigger an alarm when another player makes contact. The sound will then alert the referee as to whether a foul was genuine. Trials have been taking place at Battersea Park in London to determine whether this technology has a genuine place in the game. Watch a video of the shin pads being tested here!

Product designer Andy Shaw said: "Each pad has two sensors and magnets. One sensor is to confirm another player is very close and one is an impact sensor.

"When both sensors are triggered they set the alarm off. If a player tries to cheat and kick himself in the shins, the proximity sensor will know it was not another player and will not trigger.”

"It will decide if you've been fouled or not so it will really tell you that there's no point in diving anymore."

READ OTHER TOP STORIES IN THE WDM CONTENT NETWORK:

* Ferrari: F1 for the road
* Is hydrogen fuel the new petrol?
* Leaders in lean manufacturing

Read the latest edition of Manufacturing Digital

Former Premiership Referee Jeff Winter said: "I'm not too convinced that we'll see bleeping shin pads in the Premiership in the foreseeable future. I'll settle in my life time for seeing goal line technology.

“But the most important thing is listening to the fans and bringing it into a debate as to what can we do to stop it.”

We here at Manufacturing Digital are a little sceptical as to whether anti-dive shin pads have a genuine and meaningful purpose in the beautiful game. Although technology should be introduced toenhance decisions and make the game fairer, anti-dive shin pads may just be a step too far. We commend the novel and innovative thinking behind this product, however deciding whether a player is genuinely fouled looks like it will be the referee’s decision for some time to come.