9 February 2012: Corruption

Breaking out of semi-blog-retirement to comment on the Harry Redknapp thing and the England manager thing.

Not much to say, really, except that the whole thing stinks worse than a pig sty after curry night. Not content with the fact that everyone within the game (really, everyone) knows that Harry's been doing the bung thing for years (and not just bungs), the FA seem poised to sanction his behaviour by appointing him England manager.

The only light in this dark place appears to be that a little over fifteen years ago, Terry Venables was removed after two years as England manager essentially because of his somewhat shady dealings. The fear, however, would be that times have now changed and the FA aren't as concerned about corruption as they used to be. I mean, look at them parachuting David Lampitt into Portsmouth, an organisation that seemingly exists purely to allow Mr Chainrai's clients to "own" for a short period so they can do some laundry. (Really, buying David Norris using the savings of elderly Lithuanians and then declaring bancrupty? Mmm.)

The thing that really made me think, though, was the fact that earlier this week Alberto Condator was found guilty of drug cheating due to the world's tiniest measurable amount of Clenbuterol in his system, and banned for two years. Notwithstanding any appeals he may make, the facts are that he is now officially branded a cheat (although the amount in his system would have had zero effect on his body or performance) and has been stripped of the 2010 Tour De France title.

Now don't for a moment think I'm suddenly a Contador apologist. He's been involved in doping controversy - either at a team or an individual level - on at least two prior occasions AND there was evidence (due to the presence of a type of plastic in his samples) that he may also have been involved in blood doping (where they transfuse blood with more red blood cells into his body - hard to trace, fairly effective but also highly dangerous) during 2010. Totally unproven, but a slight whiff of 'something not right there' Add to that his 2011 performances, which were much more normal/human, which also fits with someone who used to use banned performance enhancers and now doesn't... all unproven conjecture but to me it just smells a little.

Contrast this with football's corruption, right up to the highest level, and the thing appears to be this: at least cycling, as a sport, is DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

Football just buries its head in the sand and watches the money roll in.

Makes me think, do I really want Saints to get promoted back to all that Premier League stuff?