1. Roberto Rojas - Life Ban
Youtube.comThere are some men in football who can unanimously be described as a cheat; men who try to stretch the rules, or simply break them, in order to gain a disadvantage, and Chilean goalkeeper Roberto Rojas falls firmly into that camp, after an incident in 1989 which shook the footballing world to its very foundations. Rojas was in goal for Chile during a World Cup qualifying match against Brazil. If the Chileans had lost, they would have failed to make the tournament. In the 70th minute of that match, a firework hit the pitch about a yard away from Rojas in the Chilean goal. Whilst it was smoldering, he fell to the floor holding his face in agony. His head was covered in blood, and he would have to be helped from the field by officials - leaving his teammates refusing to return to the field, claiming conditions were unsafe. However, it wasn't the firework that caused Rojas' injury - it was Rojas himself, who had deliberately cut himself with a blade hidden inside his glove in an attempt to get Brazil reprimanded by FIFA for the firework incident - which would have meant that Chile qualified for Italia 90. Somewhat inevitably he was found out when the video evidence was aired and reviewed by FIFA - and they hit him with a life ban in all competitions for the blatant act of cheating. His acts had wider repercussions, too - as Chile were banned from the 1994 World Cup, too. So above all else, the case of Roberto Rojas has to be proof that in football, cheats never prosper.