There was an article on ABC today that reports that the bid to host the Soccer World Cup was doomed before it even got off the ground. This is despite spending $46M of taxpayers money, some of which went into bribery for votes.
Have we really got to the stage where sport is nothing but a money making exercise full of corruption? How much of this corruption, backstabbing and blatant pocket-lining is happening in Rugby League? Is it time for a full-scale review of taxpayer funding for sports in Australia? We know there is corruption is our sport, and Parra were done over in 2016 because of this.
What needs to happen to ensure the taxpayer's hard earned gets spent actually helping the sport succeed and not lining pockets of corruption?
Replies
Longfin, corruption in all sporting codes is vibrant and has been for years except for probably the old ladies playing Croquet but it wouldn’t surprise if that’s corrupted too with free scones and cream.
If you think it's bad in Australia then don't even look at the Olympics. There remains downright cheating, bribery and corruption in both the IOC and WADA.
To be honest Longy, you have to buy votes to get world cups and olympics one way or another, id be worried if we wernt buying votes and thinking we'd have a chance, thats the sad fact of the reality so i think we did the right thing trying to buy votes.
As you say we never had a chance because we dont have the power or money to buy enough of the important votes.
Ive no idea how to fix it mate, its a good question,money attracts dishonesty and greed, its been going on for the history of sport, i dont know if it can change.
Should the government be funding sports that are blatantly corrupt? We would probably never host another major sporting event, but at least we would be doing something about it. Maybe other countries would eventually join us. Maybe I am being naive and there is no way out of this.
Certainly for the major sports based in Australia such as Rugby League, AFL and football, these sports would be forced to come clean, which has to be a good thing. We have been calling for Greenberg's head for a couple of years now. Maybe this is the catalyst for change.
Qatars bid was based on integrity, oil wells and great temperature all year round wasn't it