The controversy over Luis Suarez's alleged racial abuse of Patrice Evra may have overshadowed Liverpool's (forgettable) draw with Man United at the weekend, but it also took the focus away from two blatant acts of cheating during the game.
As you will see from the evidence below, United's Ashley Young and Liverpool's Stewart Downing were guilty of trying to con the referee with outrageous dives.

Cheating is a growing epidemic in football these days, as is the organisational apathy and enabling attitude of fans that allows it to flourish. With a self-confessed cheat running UEFA, it comes as no surprise to me that we're getting to the stage where a manager will have no qualms about publicly exhorting his team to cheat, which is exactly what Swindon manager Paolo Di Canio has done.

Another week, another blatant act of deliberate, cynical cheating. This time the unapologetic offender was the Czech Republic's Jan Rezek, who robbed Scotland of a Euro 2012 qualification game victory after diving to win a penalty in the 88th minute.
Diving is always wrong but what makes some worse than others is when the perpetrator admits it afterwards and shows absolutely no remorse, which is precisely what Rezek did in this situation.

There are many problems currently afflicting football, and one of the most serious is undoubtedly the rampant cheating epidemic, which continues to devalue and destroy the heart and soul of football. What is UEFA doing to tackle this problem? Nothing. And with Michel Platini running UEFA, this is unlikely to change anytime soon.

This ridiculous and obviously deliberate dive really has to be see to be believed. There's absolutely no contact at all, and the player - Twente's Peter Wisgerhof - just decides to tumble theatrically to the ground for no apparent reason. A total farce.
I'm surprised the crowd didn't storm the pitch and tear him limb from limb for that.

The new season is only one day old but we already have our first example of deliberate, shameless cheating. To be honest, I had my money on football cheat extraordinaire Wayne Rooney breaking this season's duck but Newcastle's Joey Barton has beaten him to it.
As the commentator states in the video below, Barton should be ashamed of this:
Yes, there was contact but Barton went down like he'd been hit by a car, then writhed on the ground in imaginary pain, clutching his face for added dramatic effect.