When Did Play-acting Become Fashionable in football?

Are we about to witness a cultural shift in English football? It would appear players are increasingly eager to gain Oscar recognition for their performances on the pitch, with an array of theatrics that wouldn’t look out of place in the WWE. You’ll often hear pundits and commentators yearn for the ‘good old days’, when football was comprised from blood, sweat and tears rather than snoods, alice bands and unfortunately, the replacement of sportsmanship with gamesmanship.
Queens Park Rangers‘ midfielder Shaun Derry recently declared that play-acting was “very much in fashion at the moment...