The litany that is FIFA’s ongoing corruption scandal continues to be one of the biggest investigative takedowns the world of sport has ever seen. Sepp Blatter has gone. Michel Platini has gone. Bin Hammam is gone. In fact, almost everyone who has sat at FIFA’s executive top-table over the last decade has gone.
Yet, for all the carnage that lies in the wake of the bans and suspensions imposed upon football’s governors across the world, it is worth remembering that these sanctions have been enforced in response to off-field misdemeanors. Not so with athletics. In athletics, the corruption allegations that mire the sport refer to its competitors. And there is a groundswell of opinion among some commentators that world football’s travails are small beer in comparison with what is emerging in the world of athletics.
