Integrity issues

There seems to have been a lot of stuff this week on issues relating to integrity in sport.

I got a call on Friday from Newsnight ahead of the piece they put out about Nigeria's football team; I saw there was speculation around tennis with news that officials were assessing reports of irregular betting on a first-round match between Richard Bloomfield and Christophe Rochus at the Hall of Fame grass-court tournament in Newport, R.I.; and I was delighted to see the announcement of an education deal with the British Athletes' Commission brokered by my old colleague Susannah Gill.

I was surprised to see Patrick Collins of the Mail on Sunday, a journalist I normally very much enjoy reading for his in-depth knowledge, have a go at the last of those. "If there were no sports gambling industry," he wrote, "there would be no question of corruption, nor any need to ‘safeguard the integrity of sport’".

Of the many places I might direct you, Patrick, can I suggest you have a look at this?