The foreign trait we can do without

Can you think of a player that loves waving the imaginary card? Name and shame them at the bottom of this page

Trevor Francis was horrified the first time he saw one of his players holding up an imaginary yellow card, but on reflection was not too surprised that an unwanted foreign import had crept into our game.

Francis, the former Sheffield Wednesday, Queens Park Rangers and Birmingham manager, has lent his support unequivocally to Sportsmail's campaign to clamp down on the card sneaks.

When he saw Wednesday's Dan Petrescu trying the trick during one of his first matches in this country in August 1994, Francis publicly criticised the Romanian for his actions.

But Francis believes it was only a matter of time before the gamesmanship he first experienced as a player in Italy filtered into the English game.

He said: "I'm 100 per cent behind the campaign. This is a part of football that we can all do without. Seeing players hold up make-believe yellow cards is a practice that irritates me and I'm sure a lot of other people feel the same way.

"It's not good for football. I have to be honest, I don't remember the incident that involved Dan specifically, but I do recall having words with him afterwards.

"There is little question that he would have picked it up from the Continent, probably from Genoa, although I believe he was at Foggia before that. It could have been going on there, too.

"It would have been one of the first times I'd seen it in English football, although the practice was not new to me. When I played for Sampdoria during the 80s, it was rife. A lot of the players were trying to influence the referees in that kind of way.

"But, interestingly, given what has happened to Wayne Rooney recently, I once saw Marco Van Basten given the red card when he was playing for AC Milan after he applauded one given to an opponent."

Can you think of a player that loves waving the imaginary card? Name and shame them at the bottom of this page