Rivaldo, unrepentant in the face of increasingly fierce criticism from fellow professionals and the watching world, is facing a paltry £1,000 fine for his play-acting at the end of Brazil's victory over Turkey, whose officials are urging Fifa to drop the errant referee Kim Young-joo for "killing 70m Turks".
With Brazil ahead thanks to his controversial late penalty, Rivaldo, dallying over a corner, was struck on the leg by a ball kicked in frustration by Blackburn's Hakan Unsal. The Barcelona player reacted by collapsing to the turf clutching his face; the Korean official, out of his depth and badly let down by his assistants, sent the defender off.
Fifa officials admitted last night that Rivaldo was likely to be fined - the maximum fine for a dive warranting a caution is £1,000 - rather than suspended for feigning injury that he justified as "using his experience".
The Brazilian midfielder, who was the sponsors' man-of-the-match, shrugged off the furore yesterday. "I was glad to see the red card," he said. "Creative players must be able to express themselves if football is to stay a beautiful game. There's too much foul play and violence in football. It doesn't matter where the ball hit me. It was only the intent that mattered."
Yet his reaction hardly stands up in face of Fifa's Fair Play charter, signed by those playing here. It states: "The top players have a responsibility as role-models for young people taking up the game".
Meanwhile the Turkish FA has stepped up its demands for Kim's removal from the competition's refereeing panel. His card-happy display was capped by the award of the decisive penalty when Alpay Ozalan pulled back Luizao at least three yards outside the area. "The World Cup would be a lot better if there were more referees like Mr Young-Joo," added Rivaldo, though the official's display left a nation apoplectic.
"We sacrificed 1,000 soldiers here to defend the South Koreans and one Korean has now killed 70m Turks," said Haluk Ulusoy, president of the Turkish FA. "We love Koreans, but that man cannot be a referee."
Some 461 Turkish soldiers died fighting with the United Nations force during the Korean War and 34 veterans returned to the country to watch Monday's game in Ulsan before attending yesterday's game between the hosts and Poland. Kim, who was making his debut as a World Cup referee, is the fourth official for Denmark's game against Senegal tomorrow.
"I do not condone or approve of Unsal's action, but the Brazilian held his head and fell down like he was having a brain haemorrhage," added Ulusoy. "They told us any action designed to fool a referee would be punished, but it's our players who are being punished."
Such sentiment was echoed by Rivaldo's fellow professionals. "I did not like what he did at all," said Spain's Ivan Helguera. "That a player should have to leave the pitch for what Rivaldo did is unforgivable."