FIFA president Sepp Blatter criticised the growing practice by players of feigning injury in an attempt to pressurise their opponents into kicking the ball into touch.

"Lying on the ground and pretending to be injured is just abusing (the convention) of stopping play for injury," said Blatter.

"It is just cheating and we must look at this in the future. I have seen it myself and I do not like it.

"The fans don't like it, but what it does is: it makes the team with the ball stop when perhaps there is nothing wrong."

There has been an increasing tendency of this practice at the World Cup and Blatter is also against the growing trend of players trying to get other players booked by wagging an imaginary card at the referee.

"I agree that there is an exuberance of the players going towards the referee and inviting him to show cards. This is a tendency that at the start of the World Cup I didn't see but now in the decisive matches it is happening."