The ugly game

Football is sometimes called "the beautiful game", but recent events have shown that it would be more honest to call it "the ugly game". The latest scandal, which was revealed by German police on Thursday, involves match-fixing and corruption in as many as 200 games across Europe.

It is well known that Chinese criminal gangs are now involved in football at all levels. In May, a Chinese man was convicted of the horrific murder of two Chinese students in Newcastle. They had been paid to act as "spotters", advising an Asian betting ring about English football players. No one knows why the two were so savagely beaten to death. Maybe they wanted more money. Maybe they were planning to go to the police.

Along with murder and corruption, football is increasingly associated with cheating. Last Wednesday night in Paris, Thierry Henry's blatant hand ball sent France to next year's World Cup in South Africa. For Ireland, who lost the game because of this foul, the experience has been so traumatic that the country is still in a state of shock.

By the way, when I write "Thierry the thief stole all our dreams", I mean that a foul which helps a team win a World Cup game and is seen by millions around the world is a world-class crime against the idea of fair play. Great footballers can be great role models, but when they do something very wrong, as Thierry Henry did, the children and adults who adore them are damaged and disillusioned as a result. It's an ugly game now, football.