Tag Archives: corruption

What the f*ck is going on? Corruption everywhere!

Posted on by
Reply

CorruptionIs 2010 destined to be remembered as the Year of Corruption in Sport? It might as well be.

A crap World Cup won’t be remembered but alleged Pakistan spot fixing in cricket will be.

Andy Murray in the Australian Open final won’t be remembered but John Higgins “almost” agreeing to throw snooker matches will be.

Even a successful European Ryder Cup-winning team won’t be remembered but Ferrari getting away with blatant cheating in Forumla One will be.

There’s so much cheating and corruption, whether real or alleged, going on at the moment that I can’t even begin to address each one individually. It just seems that winning, either in the sport or winning money on the sport, is now the be all and end all. It makes me sick.

There’s two types of corruption – cheating and match fixing. Neither are acceptable. With the former you stamp on the individuals or teams and make the penalties as harsh as you can. The latter, sadly, is so much harder to deal with. You can and should penalise the sportsmen and women in question but that’s not the real problem. It’s the betting syndicates and dodgy characters convincing these sportsmen and women to throw matches or alter the outcome of a game that are the problem.

How in God’s name you find them, prove it and prosecute I just don’t know. I wish I did. If you cannot trust the event, game or tournament you’re watching why would you watch?

That’s the danger for sport at the moment. ALL sports. Not just snooker and cricket. I’m now convinced it’s in every sport where there’s money. So football, rugby and the like are all in doubt in my eyes.

What a sad, sad state of affairs.

Pakistan cricket cheats should get more than life ban

Posted on by
3

ICC LogoPut aside the ineffectual attempts by the ICC to remove corruption from cricket, ignore Lord Condon’s warnings regarding Asian betting syndicates and their influence and even allow the disturbing accusations that players’ families were threatened to pass and you are left with only one thing really – that three Pakistan players cheated for personal gain (allegedly).

Innocent until proven guilty is right and proper and as such the remaining games of the tour should go ahead. Those three under suspicion should not play a part simply because it would cast doubt on any result but they shouldn’t be prematurely pilloried by the public or press. They may be innocent.

However, if they are found guilty they should receive far more than a lifetime international ban. They should not be allowed to play professional cricket of any kind ever again and they should be prosecuted and jailed. Harsh? Damn right. How else will the message that corruption and cheating will not be tolerated get through not only to players but those influencing them?

I wrote a piece about corruption in sport a while back in which I pointed out the rather obvious fact that the more money there is in sport the more corruption there will be. Cricket and Hanse Cronje in particular were touched upon.

The introduction of Twenty20 cricket and the Indian Premier League have only increased the opportunity for shady characters to influence results and incidents.

The fact that this latest scandal has hit Test cricket is odd but hardly surprising. The question now is what can and will be done about it?

The three players in question – Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir – have been charged and suspended, yes, but how they are going to be investigated is what concerns me. Clearly the ICC did little last time despite Condon’s warnings and their public announcements of non-tolerance are hollow.

I think they worry too much about the public image of cricket. To undergo a thorough and likely damning investigation right across the sport would tarnish it, of that there is no doubt. But surely it is better to do that now than to have every result in doubt forever?!

A clean sport would receive far more public support than one suffering from even a suspicion of corruption. Right now, the cricket watching public are disgusted. It can’t go on.

It has to start with the ICC taking a stand now, in conjunction with the police and other authorities in every cricketing nation. Arrests, prosecutions and jailing should take place and that HAS to include the players found guilty too. Often sportsmen get away with actual criminal charges simply because of who they are, but that can’t continue.

Yes, the dodgy bookies and dealers need to be taught that they can’t influence sports but the players also need to learn that, whatever the related circumstances, they simply cannot agree to assist them.

As a fan of many sports, not just cricket, it would put me right off if I thought there was any chance what I was watching was somehow tainted and I would rather see my sporting heroes banged up than have the whole sport ruined.

If, for example, Ryan Giggs was found guilty of match fixing I would gladly though sadly see him punished to the fullest extent of the law. Giggs is my ultimate sporting hero. That’s how strongly I feel about it and imagine most sports fans would feel too.

So come on…let’s put a stop to this in cricket and every other sport now before the whole thing is rendered pointless. Investigate, charge, prosecute and jail. Enough is enough, especially in cricket.

Corruption in Sport: A Growing Problem

Posted on by
3

Pick a sport. Any sport. We bet that in the last 10 years there has been at least one story regarding some kind of corruption or scandal relating to it.

Corruption in Sport

Where there's money there's corruption

It’s a growing trend. The more money there is in a sport, the shadier the characters attracted to it, looking to make a killing off the back of the participants. The really sad thing is, some of those participants seem only to keen to jump on the bandwagon and make a killing for themselves.

Or, if not being tempted by dodgy syndicates, some are taking it upon themselves to drug themselves up in the pursuit of personal glory…and personal wealth. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, sport would appear to be in serious trouble right now.

The most recent corruption case hit snooker, with world number one John Higgins alleged to have accepted money to lose certain frames in future events. Caught on camera by a News of the World sting, it does seem as though Higgins, recently knocked out of the World Championships at the Crucible by Steve Davis, is guilty as charged.

He, of course, has denied it and there will be an investigation, with snooker supremo Barry Hearn adamant that penalties and punishment will be swift and firm. If only other sports took such a strong and direct view.

Football, awash with money, has attracted many allegations, not least in Italy but in other countries as well. Betting scandals are the most common, of course, but the various governing bodies prefer to talk big about sorting it out and then sweep it under what must be a very big carpet.

In the UK it is usually in the transfer market where scandals arise. Who can forget the George Graham bung affair all those years ago? With agents, managers and directors involved, there are payments shooting left, right and centre. Harry Redknapp, famed wheeler and dealer as well as top manager, remains, as far as we know, under suspicion for his transfer dealings while with Portsmouth. He, as do most, maintains his innocence.

It’s a different story in China. Just last year 16 people were arrested for match fixing and bribery. Once caught, they didn’t attempt to hide the fact – they simply claimed that as everyone was doing it they had to, just to be competitive. Not the strongest of arguments, eh.

Corruption takes many forms. Over in Australia rugby side Melbourne Storm are at the centre of a huge scandal for making secret payments to their players to get them to stay with the club. Storm are owned by Murdoch’s News Limited and he himself has just been hit with a near A£500,000 fine for breaking the strict salary cap rules.

In cricket we’ve always had the ball tampering allegations, but the sport has always suffered from allegations of corruption which culminated in Lord Condon’s investigation following the Hanse Cronje affair (he admitted taking bribes to give information and fix matches on behalf of bookmakers). His report was damning, but little was done.

Even now, corruption, it seems, is rife. The Indian Premier League chairman Lalit Modi has been suspended pending an investigation into broadcasting and franchise corruption.

Performance enhancing drugs

Drug cheats

Then you have the less complicated but no less damaging scandals involving drug taking. Athletics and cycling have suffered most over the last decade or so. Every Olympics, Commonwealth Games and World Championships sees an athlete punished for drug taking. And the drugs scandal that rocked cycling was huge.

As we said earlier, the pursuit for personal glory and wealth – and the belief that you must take drugs to keep up with everyone else who is – is what drives these sportsmen and women to break the rules. But it leaves the integrity of sport in tatters.

So what can be done? The Government in the UK has an anti-corruption body. But what powers they actually have is unclear. Interviewed on radio 5Live this very morning regarding the John Higgins allegations, they urged any sports person approached about match fixing or similar to contact them immediately – but what are they going to do? And will the ‘whistle blower’ also be punished – in which case where is the incentive to come forward?

It’s not an easy issue. Where there is money there will be crime and corruption. Sport makes money. It takes strong, decisive, swift and brutal action to keep it under control, let alone stamp it out. We’re not sure there is yet the desire for that happen. Too much money to be made.

In the meantime, us spectators and supporters just have to hope that our chosen sport is as free from scandal as possible and that the events we are watching and emotionally involved in are fair contests in which the best man – or team – wins. It’s a shame this is being ever more cast into doubt.

What’s your take on the direction of sport and the amount of corruption therein? Which scandal has upset you most? Or maybe you think it’s not as bad as it seems and sport is ok? Let us know in the comments.