SAGES and philosophers had said as much before, but nobody put it better than Lord Acton almost 130 years ago: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men".

It was originally coined in consideration of Roman emperors as gods. Wielders of absolute power, like Stalin and Hitler, Papa Doc Duvalier and Pol Pot, gave 20th century underpinning.

So also in sport, where the reek of corruption pervades high office. Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter and UEFA president Michel Platini were banned for eight years following an ethics inquiry. Joao Havelange set a corrupt precedent at FIFA, and the International Association of Athletics Federation president, Lamine Diack, indicted for corruption, has resigned from the Olympic movement.

Football lieutenants like Jack Warner were banned for life after squirrelling millions. Diack solicited cash to cover up positive dope tests, helped by family and corrupt athletics officials.

Football and cricket worldwide is recurrently implicated in match-fixing, but the demise of Sam Allardyce, less than a month after his first match as England manager, plumbed new depths.

A newspaper sting exposed his alleged willingness to advise on circumventing FA rules on club ownership and transfers. It was suggested this was the nadir for English football. Then proved it wasn't the next day, handing the FA details implicating eight current or former Premier League managers in corruption.

Having ascended from a council house to English football's highest job, Allardyce is the latest manager to act like a god, contemptuous of the sport and fans. Arrogance and greed fuel the power that corrupts. Despite earning £3m annually for selecting fewer than a dozen teams a season, Big Sam allegedly could not resist the offer of an additional £400,000 as a speaker and ambassador.

Vast sums lay football open to corruption. Vast? One agent, Mino Raiola, earned more from his percentage of summer transfer fees than Cristiano Ronaldo did for playing all season. We don't suggest he crossed a line, but such rewards promote a culture of greed.

Awash with money from TV, kit deals, and hyper-inflated ticket prices, the game purports to be operated by people who love it. In reality it's run by people who love a fast buck, and don't care how they woo it.

Is corruption endemic? Ascertaining that would take an independent inquiry for which the FA seem to have neither courage nor stomach. But society naturally apes success. If it's good for the England manager and Premier League counterparts, these men will become exemplars.

Kids dive and feign injury, copying their "heroes". If the FA decreed referees punish such antics in the professional game, there would be few examples to copy. And if they drained the morass of corruption by imposing proper controls, malpractice would be curbed. The FA has an integrity hotline, but some kind of omerta clearly operates. How often does football, or any other sport, expose corruption?

Media investigations have the best strike rate. Why are Allardyce-style stings so widespread? Is it because in the world of football management – former club colleagues chatting, boasting – details of offers from agents have ready currency. If these really were so rare, every "Fake Sheik" would prompt suspicion. But no. Hence ready acceptance of such approaches, especially when brokered by a known agent.

Football is far from alone. The International Olympic Committee would have us believe they cleaned the stables by imposing stringent measures following corruption surrounding Salt Lake City hosting the 2002 Winter Games.

This occurred during the IOC presidency of Juan Antonio Samaranch, and involved everything from hospitality and sexual favours to financial inducements, jobs, gifts, and even payment of medical treatment and college fees. All in return for votes for Olympic host cities. Some 20 IOC members were either expelled, resigned, or were sanctioned.

IOC members and their spouses enjoyed lavish hospitality during repeated visits before votes on host candidates. These visits were scrapped and a small evaluation commission produced a book on the cities. Among those investigated (and given a "serious warning") was Russian member Vitaly Smirnov, an outspoken critic of the new evaluation process: "How can you fall in love with a woman by reading about her in a book?"

A former deputy sports minister of the Soviet Union, Smirnov was an IOC member from 1971 to 2015 and became an honorary member this year. In July Vladimir Putin proposed him as head of an "independent" commission on Russia's doping scandal. "Such a commission should be headed by a person with an absolutely unimpeachable reputation, who has the trust and respect of the Olympic family," said Putin.

Diack, proposed by Samaranch for the IOC in 1999, enjoyed similar misplaced trust, just like Blatter's FIFA predecessor, Havelange. An IOC member for 48 years, he reportedly received diamonds, porcelain, and paintings in connection with the 1992 Olympic bid. Swiss prosecutors implicated Havelange in more than $40m of World Cup back-handers. Similarly trusted was Pat Hickey, a member of the 15-strong IOC executive board and another Samaranch protege. President of Ireland's Olympic Committee and the European Olympic Committees which speak for 50 nations, Hickey was arrested, naked, in his hotel bathroom in Brazil on charges involving a scheme which stood to make more than £2m by reselling Olympic tickets. Europe's most senior Olympic official denies wrong-doing, but has stood down meantime.

Nationally and internationally, sport seems incapable of policing itself. Governance of FIFA, the IOC, anti-doping, and a raft of global sport secretariats has been found wanting. Whistle-blowers initiate far more investigation than such bodies themselves.

The notion of betting integrity seems almost an oxymoron, while Transparency International, a worldwide organisation, is pledged to fighting all manner of corruption which it describes as one of the global issues of our time. It says the UK sport industry is perceived by the public as the second most corrupt sector in the country. Predictably, it jumped on the bandwagon this week, condemning football. TI was formed in 1993, yet is so low-profile that until researching this column, I confess I'd never heard of it. I suspect many sport followers are the same.

Sport may be beyond redemption. The case for national and international regulation, to address corruption, is overwhelming.