Stoke boss Tony Pulis called for retrospective action against divers following the game in which Liverpool's Luis Suarez recently admitted he deliberately cheated in an attempt to win his side a penalty. Ferguson confirmed he was forced to lecture Cristiano Ronaldo and feels it is down to the clubs rather than the Football Association to impose discipline.
"Do the sanctions come from the club or the FA?" said Ferguson. "The FA have a problem because is it legal? How can they prove a lad has purposely dived? It is very difficult. The FA have always said that. Does it go to the clubs? At the end of the day it probably does."
Yet Suarez's admission does offer the potential for the FA to take retrospective action, which is what they did with Roy Keane in 2002, when they banned him for five games following a claim in the Irishman's autobiography he had deliberately set out to injure Alf-Inge Haaland during a match with Manchester City in 2001.
"The FA could react," said Ferguson.
"I haven't a view on it myself because I don't know much about the interview, apart from what I have read in the sense he admitted the dive."
The FA have indicated they will not be revisiting the Suarez incident. However, the whole diving issue is not something that sits comfortably with Ferguson, who has not been afraid to get involved himself.
"We did it with Cristiano," said Ferguson.
"He was only a young boy when he came to us and it took him a couple of years to understand. But after that he was fine.
"There is a connection to the foreign players coming into our game I don't think there is any doubt about that."
Source: PA
Source: PA