When analysing and comparing the diving phenomenon between the 2 World Cups, 2018 Men's World Cup and 2019 Women's World Cup, Using a geographic lens is also interesting.
We analysed the data on the basis of the confederations to which the participating teams belonged, using average dives and impacts per match to mitigate the fact that some teams played more matches than others. On the men’s side, there wasn’t found to be a high variance in terms of the prevalence of diving behaviour, but the dives committed by teams from CONMEBOL and UEFA had significantly more impact than those by teams from the other confederations.
The story on the women’s side was markedly different. The confederation with the highest diving frequency was CAF, while the teams with the most impactful dives were from the CONMEBOL and AFC regions.