Cheating in Sport

by Neil Stacey

Forgive the melodrama but the world of sport, it would seem, is infected by cheats; if recent events are to be considered, you could say it’s rotten to the core.

Golfers have been accused of deliberately misplacing their balls and the shadow of steroid abuse still hangs over cycling and athletics.

Footballers are deliberately diving to win penalties, rugby players are faking injuries by taking blood capsules and Formula One drivers are crashing into brick walls.

It certainly makes for sorry reading, although there’s nothing new in stories of cheating and skullduggery in the sporting world.

Cheating has been rife in sport for many a year, with sportsmanship and the ‘Corinthian’ spirit disappearing a long time ago.

"There has always been and will always be gamesmanship,” says Andy Barton a mental performance coach from The Sporting Mind.

“When you put competitive people in a competitive situation, this is going to happen. People have and continue to do what they can get away with," he said.

Back page to celebrity

As more and more money is piled into sport through sponsorship, wages and endorsements, it seems the amount of unacceptable gamesmanship, cheating and corruption has risen to epic proportions.

Scandal after scandal has dogged sport and you can’t help but wonder what lessons are being learnt from some of the sports stars of today?

In today’s modern media-driven society, sports stars hold a unique place in our hearts.

They’ve long transgressed from being just back page news, for it seems the whole world wants to know what type of pens David Beckham prefers or what breakfast cereal Sir Chris Hoy wakes up to (Sharpie markers and Bran Flakes in case you’re wondering).

These are the people who we look up to – these are the role models of today’s youth, the icons that young kids aspire to be like.

As such these are the 'heroes’ whose actions kids will copy and from whom they’ll learn about morals and fair play; but what do some of these stars and clubs know about such things?

Flagrant cheats

Not much when you consider the examples being set of late.

Only last month Flavio Briatore was given a lifetime ban from Formula One and motor sport for fixing the Singapore Grand Prix in 2008.

Briatore, the then boss of Renault, was found guilty of orchestrating a deliberate crash involving one of his cars to benefit the other.

Briatore’s insatiable desire for success far outweighed any moral fibre or any respect for his sport, opponents or fans.

By instructing his driver Nelson Piquet Jnr to crash into the barrier he was not only prepared to put his driver’s safety at risk but also that of his competitors, the race marshals and the spectators at the race.

Bloodgate

Another unsavoury piece of sporting infamy recently involved Harlequins rugby club and the now infamous ‘Bloodgate’ story.

Trailing late in an important European game, the 'Quins needed to make a substitution to bring their ace kicker on the field with the team in position to win the game.

Having made all their regulation substitutions, Quins needed to fake a blood injury to allow fly-half Nick Evans back onto the field.

Cue a phoney blood capsule (bought from a joke shop in Clapham Junction) and the club doctor being instructed to take a scalpel to the inside of Tom Williams’ mouth to make the injury realistic.

Of course the shameful plot was uncovered with severe penalties and bans handed out to all involved.

The club got fined over £250,000, Dean Richards, the director of rugby who took responsibility for the scam, got a three-year ban, while the physiotherapist was also banned, as was Williams, although his year-long ban was reduced to four-months after he admitted that he was forced to lie.

A*sy Aresenal

The summer of sporting shame continued with Arsenal striker Eduardo who caused outrage with his simulated dive which earned his team a penalty in the Champions League win over Celtic in August.

After rounding keeper Artur Boruc, the Croatian hot-shot went to ground far too easily, but still managed to convince the referee that he had been fouled.

In an unprecedented move Eduardo was banned for two games, although after an appeal this was lifted.

While these scandals have helped highlight cheating in their sport, it’s worth considering that gamesmanship occurs in every sport (and at all levels), although often in more subtle ways.

A snooker player may delibrately slow down a match to frustrate his opponent, a golfer may suddenly move in a fellow competitor’s peripheral vision while they’re putting or cricketers may look to change their gloves numerous times over to waste precious minutes (as happened in the First Ashes Test Match of this summer.)

But it would seem that enough is enough for one powerful person in English sport.

Speaking at a Global Sport Summit in London, Fabio Capello, manager of the England football team spoke out over cheating, specifically diving.

“I don't like players to dive, ever. I always speak to my players about this. Sometimes the decisions of the referee are not correct, and that’s not good, but I don’t like divers. You have to be correct and go with the spirit of the game. I cannot kill him (a player that dives) but I don’t like diving,” told the delegates.

At the same summit, England’s rugby manager Martin Johnson also gave his views on cheating, calling it “human nature.”

However he didn’t believe that the financial rewards of sporting success are a greater incentive to cheat: "We all live in a competitive world and whether money is involved or not, it's the will to win. Did things happen like that when rugby was amateur? Of course it did," he added.

No More Capsules

Ominously Andy Barton warns that gamesmanship will never fully leave sport and is here to stay: "It is unlikely that any rugby player is likely to carry a fake blood capsule around in his sock in the near future, but the gamesmanship may take a more subtle form," he says.

Gamemanship in sport is everywhere – in every penalty box dive, every off-putting grunt in tennis, and every false appeal in cricket.

Sometimes it’s a bit cheeky, even charming, and other times it can leave a bad taste in your mouth (or even fake blood).

Sometimes it’s just not cricket, golf, football or whatever sport you care to think about; but it would seem that we’ll just have to get used it.

Let’s hope the out-and-out cheats have learned their lesson: Cheats never prosper.