THE HERALD REPORTS
Are we wrong to lament the passing of sporting values?

DOUG GILLON May 29 2006

Where have sport's principles gone, sold down the river, every one, to parody Joan Baez. Integrity plumbs the depths, surely sport has reached its nadir: Mountaineers left for dead on Everest; Schumacher judged to have deliberately stalled to block a rival at Monaco; doctors charged with doping, endangering cyclists' health; France's president granting amnesty to his corruption-convicted sports minister; Italy embroiled in a scandal which suggests attempts to influence national team selection; the FA investigating suspicious betting in the Coca-Cola League . . .
There is no league table for sporting dishonour, and this is is no apologia for Rangers, but the Ibrox club's conviction for sectarian-chanting by a section of their so-called fans seems almost minor league compared with some recent headlines.
Should we be surprised at the examples football sets for youngsters in our society, a "beautiful game" which vilifies people of a different faith and encourages primary school players to mimic ubiquitous professional diving?
Mountains used to be like the sea. A common bond amongst those who challenged nature's frontiers was the samaritan instinct of helping those in difficulty. The mountain code is now traduced. The revelation that David Sharp, from Teesside, was left to die on Everest, reportedly passed by some 40 people unwilling to compromise their own ascents, has been condemned by mountaineering icons Sir Edmund Hillary and Chris Bonnington. Some 1500 people have climbed the peak since Hillary and Tensing Norgay made the first successful ascent. Now commercial enterprises have fixed ropes running to the summit, and charge up to $40,000 a head. Some 1500 people, aged from 15 to 70, have reached the summit, but basic humanity has been swept away in the avalanche of money.
Should we be surprised, given the obscene rewards in motorsport, that Schumacher was judged to have deliberately balked Fernando Alonso's bid for pole? I doubt if I was alone in celebrating Alonso's victory yesterday.
Jacques Chirac, the French president, granted an amnesty last week to his former sports minister, Guy Drut. He is concerned at waning French influence in the International Olympic Committee. The 1976 Olympic sprint hurdles champion was convicted last year on charges of bribery, corruption, and party-financing. He received a suspended 15-month jail sentence and was fined £34,000. This was followed by temporary IOC suspension. Note temporary.
This is the movement which tolerated the membership of Indonesian Bob Hassan (who once offered Liz McColgan $500,000 if she could break a world record in fierce heat and humidity) for some time after he had been jailed for his role in a multi-million forestry scam, not to mention the notorious Kim Un-Yong. Despite the Korean's known implication in a raft of dubious activities, Kim finished second in the race for the IOC presidency, behind current incumbent Jacques Rogge. It tells even more about the IOC that in third place was Dick Pound, the movement's witchfinder general who had exposed the
corruption within, and that in fifth place was US lawyer Anita de Frantz. Cynics might wonder whether her mistakes were enjoying an impeccable reputation that matched Pound's, and that she was female, and black. Kim was eventually jailed, and resigned from the IOC.
But the French amnesty now means the IOC can lift its temporary ban on Drut.
Giuseppe De Mita (son of Italy's former premier Ciriaco De Mita) and Davide Lippi (son of the national football team coach) were placed under investigation last week in the ever-widening ripples of an inquiry which threatens to reach tsunami proportions in Italian football.
They work for an agency said to control more than half the players in Serie A. Two other staff are also under investigation. One is a former president of Lazio, and the company is run by the son of former Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi. Prosecutors are investigating claims that Moggi tried to influence national team selection. Transfers are being scrutinised; the Juventus board has resigned with the club facing possible relegation and loss of its 29th Serie A title; and prosecutors in Turin, Parma, Naples and Rome are investigating suspected match-fixing, illegal betting, and manipulation of referee assignments.
Spanish police investigating a cycling scandal have found lists with the names of more than 100 elite competitors in a range of sports who allegedly used the services of doctors offering doping procedures. Two doctors, Eufemiano Fuentes and José Merino Batrino, have been charged with crimes against public health.
Sport once enshrined all that was good and decent . . . play up, play up and play the game!
Newbolt would now be a voice crying in the wilderness.
Are we dinosaurs in lamenting the passing of traditional sporting values? Should we fight to preserve them or does anyone care?

This article was posted on 29-May-2006, 17:18 by Hugh Barrow.