Lots have been said about the now notorious Eduardo dive.

Those who defend him have come up with excuses ranging from everything like "he stubbed his toe" to "he's still traumatised by the Taylor assault".

The truth is however - he did dive.

South Americans are great divers, as they are great dribblers and in fact just great all round players.

What's seen as an outrage in some parts of the world is business as usual in others.

It must be said however that in my native Brazil such plays in the box are getting rarer every season as most referees are very much tuned in to this particular play and the chances are 99% certain that the player will only get a yellow card for such a diving effort.

This particular time, across the Atlantic, in Europe, the referee fell for it and Eduardo got himself a rare penalty.

While striking his ill gotten penalty Eduardo did something which, by coincidence, has stirred much debate on televised Brazilian round-table football discussions.

He did a "paradinha".

The "paradinha" was a move frequently done by Pele and subsequently many others to be sure so it's nothing new. It simply means that he stopped the flow of his run for a fraction of a second before striking the ball.

The keeper was thrown off and then Eduardo simply slotted the ball the other way adding insult to injury.

Therein lies the Brazilian debate. Many are claiming that hitting a penalty in this manner is illegal and only permitted in Brazil.

Goes without saying that this argument is out the window as Eduardo clearly struck one home in the heart of Europe and nobody even batted an eye.

The concern in Brazil, however, is that FIFA has never pronounced itself on the issue.

Exactly where do we draw the line?

Exactly how much is the striker allowed to legally fake the keeper?

In recent times Brazilian football has seen a proliferation of penalty fakes, sometimes switching feet, sometimes two "paradinhas".

Rogerio Ceni, Sao Paulo goalie, but notorious free kick and penalty taker commented this week on a particular Libertadores incident.

Ceni said that while in the dressing-room before a match versus a Uruguayan club he was approached by an Argentinian referee and told to his face -

If your team gets a penalty today and you do that thing you do with the stop and go, I just want you to know that I will disallow it. That sort of thing is only valid in Brazil.

Goes without saying that this sort of pre-match pressure by a referee on a player is in itself questionable but we'll leave "How Brazilian clubs suffer pressure in South America" for another day.

The question is if there was any truth to this referee's declarations.

Can a player really be allowed to fake stop and go as he pleases with a penalty or should it be one flowing run towards goal with a single strike?

As long as FIFA leaves it in the air we might just have to wait till one day it's the 86th. minute of a keenly contested World Cup final, one side gets a penalty, the kicker steps up does a double fake stop, switches feet and slots it in the vacant net, the keeper races off to confront the referee and suddenly there's mayhem....as the pushing and shoving begins.

Having said this, to Eduardo's credit it must also be noted that his little stop was nicely executed "A la Pele" style and is hardly even noticeable except for in slow motion.

Actually much harder to detect than the obvious dive.