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Cheating is omnipresent in football these days, where players have got many dirty tricks up their sleeves to win a match at any cost. When the stakes are high in modern day football, players pretend a lot these days on the pitch to get the decisions in their favour.
It includes, but is not limited to intimidating the referee, diving deliberately, faking an injury, wasting time intentionally and deliberately touching the ball with hands.
Officials and fans call for the use of video technology to make life easier for referees. International Football Association Board is trying out Video Assistant Referee (VAR), a video technology to review on-field decisions using the video footage. It is in the early stages and will take some time.
This list is always debatable, but here are the ones we thought are the Top 5 cheaters in modern day football:
#5 Sergio Busquets
An incredibly talented player, Busquets has an awful reputation for diving and trying to gain an unfair advantage from referees.
Sergio Busquets earned the status of football's worst diver when he fell to the ground in a UEFA Champions League game against Inter. Motta appeared to have brushed his face and the Barca midfielder went down theatrically holding his face.
He writhed on the ground in pain and then had a little peek at the referee to see if Motta was given his second booking. Shameful act indeed.
In another incident against Real Madrid in 2011, Sergio Busquets was charged by UEFA for racially abusive comments against Marcelo, but he was cleared later for lack of evidence.
Although he has toned down the antics in the latter parts of his career, few incidents like the Motta's send-off has labelled his as the "King of the Divers"
#4 Gareth Bale
The former Tottenham man and the current Real Madrid player, Gareth Bale has a habit of going down very easily and is quickly moving up the ladder of world football's worst drivers. However, he still continues to try his luck and the patience of officials.
Gareth Bale has been booked in many Premier League games for simulation. He is the all-time most booked player for diving in Premier League with 7 yellow cards in his Tottenham career.
He continued his antics in La Liga as well and received cautions from referees. He is one of the fastest players in the world football right now and that plays to his advantage for simulating an incident.
Throughout his career, Gareth Bale was exposed many a times diving, but nothing was evident than this. During 2013/14 season, Bale was brutally exposed (see video) when he attempted a dive against Sevilla in a La Liga game to win a penalty for Real Madrid.
Gareth Bale once argued that, what others assume to be simulation/diving/over-exaggerating/cheating, is, in fact, a defence mechanism to avoid being hurt when opponents try to stop him running with the ball. He can convince a few but not many.
#3 Ashley Young
Throughout his lengthy career, United's Ashley Young has developed a poor reputation as one of the Premier League's worst in simulating incidents. A lot of players and pundits in the past has accused Young of manipulating the referees by diving in the box to win penalties.
Former Liverpool star Dietmar Hamann accused Young of blatant cheating during a Champions League encounter with Real Sociedad in 2013. He tricked referee Nicola Rizzoli into awarding him a penalty.
Arsenal legend Martin Keown also has hit out at Ashley Young for his dramatic dive in United's victory over CSKA Moscow in a 2015 Champions League game.
In another incident, Ashley Young was booked for diving by referee Jon Moss in a game against Crystal Palace in 2013.
Ashley Young has won close to 20 penalties in his Premier League career, the most for a Premier League player in the last 10 years and most of them in a very controversial circumstances. He was warned once by his manager Sir Alex Ferguson for diving.
#2 Arjen Robben
The Netherlands international Arjen Robben came into the limelight during an all-important 2014 World Cup group game against Mexico. With the game tied at 1-1 in the 92nd minute, Robben dramatically exaggerated a foul in the box to win a penalty that eliminated Mexico out of the World Cup. Arjen Robben threw himself 3 times during the game and got lucky in his final attempt.
He later admitted to diving and apologised for his actions but it was a decisive moment in the history of Mexican football and Arjen Robben's name was badly tarnished after the incident.
There were few more incident involving Arjen Robben and Arsene Wenger once criticised him for blatant diving in a Champions League against Arsenal during the 13/14 season.
All through his career, Arjen Robben has used his pace to deceive referees into awarding decisions in his favour even when there was a minimal contact. His days in PSV, Chelsea and Real Madrid were filled with a lot of these controversial incidents but he toned down his antics after the move to German club Bayern Munich.
#1 Luis Suarez
He more than deserves the No.1 spot on this list. When others do it quietly, Luis Suarez has a knack for doing things on the big stage. One of the most talented and controversial players of our generation.
Throughout professional footballer career, Suarez has landed himself in trouble on many occasions on and off the pitch including racially abusing Patrice Evra, biting opposing players, as well as getting into altercations with other players.
List of Luis Suarez's Controversies
2010 - Deliberate handball on the goal line against Ghana during World cup quarter-finals that eliminated Ghana out of the World Cup.
2010 - Biting PSV Eindhoven attacker Otman Bakkal in an Eredivisie match when playing for Ajax. Luis Suarez was banned for 7 games after the incident.
2011 - Banned 8 games for racially abusing Patrice Evra during a Premier League game against Manchester United
2013 - Branislav Ivanovic become Suarez's second bite victim during Liverpool's PL game against Chelsea and he was banned for 10 games
2014 - The most famous of all. Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini becomes Luis Suarez's third victim during an all-important World cup game. Luis Suarez was later banned for 4 months from playing football.
