Credibility in Sport not supremacy

Sports should not seek supremacy but credibility.

Sport is facing increasing questions about it's integrity, and whilst in many ways, it's not that the questions are new, more the scrutiny is more intense.

Looking at some of the major sports in the UK, it's clear to see the credibility challenges faced by the sports.

Football

Football faces the big challenge of money and greed. The game has more money than ever pouring into the top level, for evidence you only need to see Gareth Bale's £85m move to Real Madrid and the plethora of other transfers over the summer.

Yet this money is tainting the credibility of football and it's link to the public.

The FA Cup remains one of the most popular competitions in the game, why? because it has the history, it is the only place you can see the stars playing in the backyards (as it were).

The game is becoming increasingly commercialised and the threat of match fixing looms larger and larger as the betting market grows. Former players have already admitted to trying to fix elements of matches and only this week Dan Tan, believed to be the ring leader of a match fixing ring in Singapore was arrested.

This problem is not unique to football of course, this week has seen former World number 5 Stephen Lee found guilty by the WPBSA (Snooker Association) for match fixing. As sport becomes bigger worldwide it becomes more of a target for cheating and crime.

Cricket

Cricket has faced this in the past, Hanse Cronje being the most famous example, but even last year 3 Indian IPL players were arrested for match fixing.

Cricket faces other problems with credibility also. It remains very much a closed shop.

With only 10 nations in the world playing test matches, all being members of the Commonwealth of Nations (Former British Commonwealth), except Zimbabwe which withdrew in 2003. 

The game is poorly run at the highest level with international boards holding each other to ransom, which is the case in the current scenario with India and South Africa.

Also money plays a key part in the game also, why have England played Australia in ODIs again? They played 5 ODIs in 2012; have now played another 5 in 2013 and 5 more in early 2014! Guess what the next Ashes series in England is scheduled to be in 2015, with likely another 5 ODIs in the tour. So 20 ODI games in 4 years between the same sides, absolute madness!

Cycling 

As readers will know cycling is a sport that I love to follow. Unfortunately, it is now a sport that is constantly associated with doping.

Even though the amount of riders being caught has diminished, the past still overshadows the sport, and every performance is now scrutinised to the tiniest degree. 

Now doping is assumed if a rider is inconsistent, too consistent, attacks, doesn't attack, climbs fast in the saddle, climbs fast out of the saddle, riders faster than people in the past, embraces sports science, is young, is old. Doesn't leave much room to believe that any cyclist isn't doping and that is the big issue in cycling, trust and credibility.

Qatar and Conclusion

Finally returning to football, UEFA announced yesterday that it backs the 2022 World Cup to be hosted in Winter. The awarding of the World Cup to Qatar, was really beyond belief, a country with no world cup pedigree, with no footballing pedigree, with very little football infrastructure, with dubious human rights records. The fact that they won the bid for a summer world cup, and now it is being converted to winter to suit them, makes it all the more ridiculous. 

How on earth was this not foreseen at the bidding stage? Only greed surely could have blinded the FIFA officials who voted this into place (just to cover myself, I'm talking about the future potential money that FIFA would make from building the games presence in the Middle East).

The greed for money and the quest for global world supremacy for football.

But football and sport in general should not seek supremacy but credibility.

Le Tour review

London buses, you wait an age for one and then two come along at one. So it is with Brits winning the Tour de France.

98 editions passed before a British rider won the Tour de France. It took only one further edition for the feat to be repeated.

Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome are now both etched into Tour de France history.

Wiggins and Froome

Bradley Wiggins looks very unlikely to repeat his win from last year. Froome proved his climbing superiority last year, and this year proved a match in the time trial. 

Froome is 5 years younger and is now, after this resounding performance and Wiggins' poor Giro, the clear leader of Team Sky.

Wiggins does not appear to have the appetite and motivation to repeat his outstanding 2012 successes.

The feeling now is, that if Wiggins wants to lead a Tour de France team again, it will have to be with someone other than Team Sky.

Froome however, at only 28 has the cycling world at his feet. His last 4 grand tour positions have been 2nd, 4th, 2nd and 1st. He is clearly a Grand Tour contender whenever he is at the start line.

The status quo 

2013 was a year when the status quo was challenged. There was no Prologue, it was the first time the TdF visited Corisca, the last department of France to receive the Tour. The race finished at twilight on the champs Elysse but went around the Arc de Triomphe.

Awards

Best Rider

Chris Froome - Team Sky - No surprise here, he blew the race apart each time the parcours went uphill. With a less dominant team than last year, Froome proved he was superior to every rival.

Best Newcomer

Nairo Quintana - Movistar - He announced himself on the Grand Tour stage in emphatic style, consistently attacking in the high mountains. He won the King of the Mountains, the Young rider award and 2nd place, all in his first Tour de France, impressive.

Best Latecomer

Joaquin Rodriquez - Katusha - Katusha and Rodriquez were all but invisible for the first half of the tour. Indeed Rodriquez was 10th after the 13th stage and 7 minutes adrift after Mont Ventoux. He finished the tour 3rd just over 5 minutes down on Froome. He was the only one who could live with Froome and Quintana in the final mountain stages.

Best French Rider

Technically it was 15th placed Romain Badret, who finished ahead of John Gadret. Badret was however fairly non-existent despite this result. His team-mate Christophe Riblon however was not. Riblon consistently attacked, as did Sylvain Chavanel, Riblon was though more effective.

Best Stage

Although the Champs Elysse was spectacular at night, the most active on stage 9 into Bagneres-de-Bigorre. Seeing Team Sky crumble under incessant attack from Movistar and Saxo Bank was unexpected, due to Sky's dominance last year. The stage also saw Dan Martin win and Chris Froome prove that he could win the Tour.

Best Crash

Stage 12's pile up was a notable favourite of mine for the cartwheel by one of the Sky riders. Tom Veelers crash captured the most media attention, whilst Froome fans might look at the Contador crash as their favourites as Froome nearly "ran over his head".

Most courageous

Geraint Thomas finished the Tour 140th out of 169 riders, despite having broken his pelvis on

Notable mentions

The old men of the peloton deserve a mention. Jens Voigt, the oldest rider in this years Tour de France at 41, proved he was still able to tell his legs to 'shut up'.

Stuart O'Grady completed his 17th Tour start and retired with immediate effect. His first Tour was in 1997, a different era (at least we hope so), when cycling was on Channel 4 and drugs were rife in the peloton.

Most untimely mechanical
Alejandro Valverde. Untimely for him, but timely for Rui Costa, who dropped back to assist and found himself with ample time to penetrate two breakaways and win two stages.

Roll on 2014 with the Grande Bretagne depart from Yorkshire.

A Weekend of British sporting success

This weekend we experienced another historic weekend of sporting success that rivalled the heights of last years Olympics.

British Lions
The weekend started early. The Lions had not won a series in 16 years in that time they had lost 3 series and this one was on a knife edge.

The Lions raced into the lead Corbisiero scoring a try after just 1 minute. Halfpenny added the extras and a further 2 penalties, and the Lions were storming into half
time.

But the Wallabies would not lay down that easily. They hit back with a try before half time O'Connor spinning over between tackles, to leave Australia back in with a shout.

And they looked like coming back after 2 penalties pulled them to within 3 points.

The Lions were not to be denied they scored a try through Sexton and the floodgates opened. The Lions made history and sealed a good series in stunning style.

Tour de France
The Tour de France reached the first mountains this weekend and team Sky emphatically stamped their authority on it on the Saturday with Froome winning the stage and taking yellow with teammate Porte the best of the rest.

But Sunday was a stark contrast, if Sky were dominant on Saturday they were desolate on Sunday with leader Froome isolated for much of the day.

Froome though successfully fended off a flurry of attacks especially from the aggressive Movistar team. He held onto yellow, but a warning shot was fired.

The next few days should be calmer, with a rest day the individual time trial and then 3 flat stages which should suit the sprinters (Sagan, Cavendish, Greipel and Kittel) who are all on level peggings with one stage each.

Wimbledon
This year proved a historic Wimbledon. Top seeds fell early, some literally. Serena Williams and Roger Federer had their streaks brought to an end.

The lack of Federer and Nadal in Andy Murray's way paved his way to the inal but not without a scare or two, as he came through a tough 5 setter against Verdasco.

And if a Murray - Djokovic final seemed inevitable as soon as Federer lost; no one had Del Potro as he engaged in the match of the tournament taking Djokovic to 5 despite having heavy strapping in his knee.

Looking back now, the final seemed a routine win but it was anything but. The first 4 games took 25 minutes, as both players traded blows. But Murray finally broke and won the first set.

The 2nd set was heading Djokovic's way a break up, until Murray won the last 4 games straight.

The 3rd had a sense of deja vu about it with Djokovic going a break up and Murray fighting back. On a sweltering day Murray seemed to dig to the depths of his reserves to return shots seemingly out of his range.

The courage and determination that brought him to his second successive final at Wimbledon, was in abundance in the final game. 40 - 0 and serving for the match Djokovic produced some good tennis combined with Murray being seemingly both overwhelmed with the occasion as well as the heat and intensity of the match.

But he dug deep and managed to find a way through to become the first Men's Wimbledon champion in 77 years, and the first ever in shorts!

Sport

And the sport doesn't stop, the Tour de France continues, The Open golf tournament starts on the 18th July and the Ashes starts this Wednesday with England the favourites, but the Aussies never written off.