IT has been a bad week for sport, especially for those who think it should be a bastion of decency, morality, and fair play.
For them it marks another milestone in crumbling ethics.
In snooker, five-time world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan suggested yesterday that match-fixing was rife. This came just a day after it was revealed that former world No.5 Stephen Lee faces a life ban. He was allegedly involved in bets totalling £111,000 over seven matches, with £40,000 paid into his wife's bank account.
"I've heard there's many more players who throw snooker matches," tweeted O'Sullivan yesterday. "I suppose Steve Lee was just caught out."
O'Sullivan says he expects to be fined for breaking ranks on something the sport likes to keep "under the carpet".
Barry Hearn, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association chairman, believes O'Sullivan has an obligation to provide details and names. O'Sullivan can now expect a grilling from WPBSA disciplinary chairman Nigel Mawer over his claim that this is just the tip of the cue.
The former detective chief superintendent in Scotland Yard's Specialist Crime Directorate, Mawer headed the 2010 investigation into corrupt Pakistani cricketers.
The problem in snooker is now considered so serious that special "integrity units" have been established to look at every match.
In football, four British non-league players face 10 years' imprisonment, it emerged yesterday. Nick McKoy, Joe Woodley, Reiss Noel and David Obaze may barely be household names outside their own homes, but the first three played for Hornchurch, whom the Football Association put under investigation over irregular betting earlier this year.
Fifa and Australian police authorities are investigating allegations surrounding the four who play for Southern Stars in Melbourne. They are bailed and due to appear in court there on Friday.
A syndicate with Malaysian links allegedly collected £1.2m last Friday when the bottom-of-table team drew 0-0 at odds of 6-1. The scam has been linked to a Singaporean, Wilson Raj Perumal, believed to be under police protection in Hungary while helping the authorities with match-fixing allegations.
It's fundamental that anyone who places a bet is entitled to think the object of the investment is trying honestly. That they sometimes do not should be no surprise, however. Documented corruption dates back to the Ancient Olympics when even judges had to swear an oath of impartiality.
What may once have been a problem for a few officials in the mists of sporting antiquity now engages pan-global law and drug enforcement authorities, but their inconsistencies are not calculated to give competitors confidence in the process.
Marin Cilic can count himself fortunate to have been given a nine-month suspension after a positive test for a stimulant. The International Tennis Federation accepted it was in a glucose dietary supplement which, in the form the Croat normally took it, did not contravene the rules. However, the product his mother bought locally in Monte Carlo contained a banned substance.
This evokes memories of Alain Baxter, whose normal Vicks inhaler was fine, but the same product bought by his coach in Utah contained a stimulant which caused him to be stripped of Olympic bronze. Other athletes, among them Scottish sprinter Dougie Walker, took legitimate nutrition supplements which were contaminated and, though technically innocent, they were banned for two years.
Cilic says he will take his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. He should take care. He may find they take a less lenient view than the ITF, and increase his ban to two years.
Perhaps most unedifying of all has been the hare set running by the Spanish Anti-Doping Agency. They smeared the Vuelta winner Chris Horner, claiming he missed an out-of-competition drug test the day after his victory in Madrid.
Horner had stated where he would be, having moved to his wife's hotel, and informed the US Anti-Doping Agency of his new address, including phone number and room number. He did so before the start of the final stage and received a confirmatory email. The Spanish then went to the wrong hotel and made his absence public to media.
Their latest inquisition on doping is touching, given how damningly ineffectual they have been. This is the country where only this year a judged ordered all the blood bags from Operation Puerto to be destroyed. These would have permitted identification of dozens of doping cheats.
When doping doctor Eufemiano Fuentes offered to reveal the names of all his clients, the presiding judge excused him. Then he imposed a one-year suspended sentence and ordered that the bags be destroyed. As yet, the Spanish Anti-Doping Agency has got nowhere with an appeal.
They should bring back Torquemada.
Their incompetent conduct over Horner is a disgrace. The agencies clearly don't communicate effectively, and Horner would seem entitled to damages from those responsible. I hope he gets them.
He should have been celebrating the oldest major tour victory at 41. Instead he is left fighting for his reputation. This further discredits a flawed system and will erode confidence in it.
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