Corruption in sport - Money has ruined many great sports

It’s probably as naive to hope that the Corinthian ideals expressed through energy, competitiveness, and integrity that once shaped top-level sport might ever again prevail as it is to imagine that the Tour de France, or any other multimillion euro sport, could be corruption-free.

Nevertheless, yesterday’s allegation that a Qatar football executive paid €3.6m to buy support for that country’s campaign to host the 2022 World Cup is just another deflating confirmation of how tawdry, how unromantic and grindingly commercial top-level sport is.

It has become an exclusively commercial or political exercise expressed through a medium — the game in question — that not so very long ago had a plausible integrity, or at least a redeeming degree of plausible integrity. Sadly, not even the most enthusiastic fan can say that remains the case — most professional sport is like professional wrestling but with lower-level histrionics.