In every society you get cheats, big cheats and small cheats – men & women who won’t follow the rules their culture and fellow human beings adhere to. Why is this? It is because they are determined to place their self-interest above all else, and above everyone else.

These cheats hit us from all walks of life – burglars, robbers, cowboy builders, pickpockets, car thieves, scammers, dodgy garage owners, fraudsters, bank product mis-sellers, employers of illegal workers, uninsured motorists, stockbroker spivs, receivers of stolen goods, scurrilous international corporations, insurance swindlers, smugglers, casual labour exploiters, iffy company directors, drug dealers, muggers, tax avoiders, rogue landlords, bung takers, fly tippers, illegal wheel clampers, parking fine scoundrels, product counterfeiters, AMONGST OTHERS! It is surprising that any of us survive unscaved  and unscarred – and most of us don’t!

However, there is a new set of crooks pervading our society, another set of low life, another set of charlatans, another set of crosiers, another set of sharks, another set of double-dealers, another set of imposters, another set of shysters, another set of fakes. A set of nauseating cheats who time and time again escape justice, who avoid proper punishment, who never go to prison for their crimes, who laugh at us all the way to the bank!

So who is this unique group and how do they get away with it. They are the cheating sportsmen (and that includes sportswomen of course). They, when caught, get-off with a slap on the wrist, and never face police enquiries or the legastive authorities about their fraudulent behaviour.

What sports are involved? Most of them – cycling, football, baseball, weightlifting, volleyball, judo, wrestling, rowing, equestrian, gymnastics, field hockey, athletics, rugby league, basketball, snooker, boxing, cricket, etc, involving many international events around the World, including sadly the cherished Olympic Games (always about 10 or more, with over 30 at its home Athens, and even some 15 at last year’s London Olympics -they don’t think they will get caught!). What Counties are involved? Most of them – more than a hundred, many you haven’t even heard of, but others very close to home or our hearts (all with cheating super-sportspersons – dozens from some big countries).

What are they doing? Well, there is some match fixing, and specific cheating in the sport itself, but mostly it is people involved in doping offences. People who have been caught-out using, or who have owned up to taking, illegal ‘performance enhancing’ drugs, or so called ‘recreational’ drugs, or who have failed to undertake the sport’s mandatory drug testing. Why do these cretins take such drugs? You can probably guess? Money Money Money!

Fifty years ago there was very little money in sport (except probably in America). Most sportspeople were armatures and never  got  paid a penny! Some football clubs in England ‘paid’ their amature players by putting some cash in their boots after a game (and suffered if they got caught!) and professional players, like top players such as Stanley Mathews got the maximum weekly wage of £35 (and there were no £70million transfer fees for all and sundry to take a rake off). How times have changed – EVERONE is now a professional to boot!

Some sports people are now paid millions of pounds – they end up very rich men and women! You don’t get to be a top sportsperson without having substantial natural talent, total commitment, and a lot of hard work, but then for some of them the lure of money makes them turn to drugs to improve or maintain their performance – so they can be better than their competitors & get paid more money. When they perhaps get done, they get suspended and then banned by their sporting body. Do they care? Not much; like all criminals they weigh-up the risk of getting caught, and the punishment – and make a positive decision that it is worth it! They bring shame on their sport and leave a finger of suspicion on all who are successful who follow them – but there is no remorse (only self-sadness and denials).

In athletics they get away with as little as a 2 year ban these days (or less) – a mere smack on the wrist. Not much more than a severe training injury’s worth (time to relax, train, and then prepare for further competition). This is a bizarre joke! The global authorities are a disgrace to us all. The cheaters, despite having committed substantial fraud on the paying public, sponsors & other funders, as well as event organisers, are never prosecuted. Just steal a few million pounds from a bank and see what cell you end up in – and it won’t be for a year either, and you won’t be later allowed out to work with money!

We have more than thirty Brits who have actually been caught – including famous names; Lee Bower footballer; Linford Christie athlete; Willie Johnson Scottish footballer (caught in an International against Peru!); Christine Ohuno athlete (double World champion and Olympics medals winner); and perhaps most disgracefully of all Dwan Chambers athlete (banned but simply went abroad for a while, to get paid in another well paid  sport, came back, runs again internationally for a fortune and sickenly has the temerity to pull on a British Olympic vest and run for our Country!).

American has spawned over a hundred and fifty cheats, including the previously heroine of athletics Marion Jones, and well-known Carl Lewis who was awarded the 100m Olympic title (despite having been caught cheating before the Games but not suspended by the Americans!), running second to the infamous Canadian Ben Johnson athlete, who had cheated to win the title in World record time – expunged of course! Then there is their icon cycling champion Lance Armstrong, a multimillionaire now, who cheated his way to a record  7 consecutive Tour de France wins (got away with it for years & years, was never detected by the authorities – covered-up really – and wouldn’t own-up, but was finally got, through the admissions of others he had also forced into joining him and becoming cheats).

Football (soccer) provides us with the most prolific level of cheating during the game you can ever witness . Despite having an experienced and highly paid Referee, two paid Assistant Referees ON THE PITCH, there is also a fourth paid Official at the side of the field, the players still. cheat their way through the entire match – you see all this in TV replays with blatant shirt pulling, hand balling, punching, kicking, pushing, spitting, using foul language, physically intimidating the Ref, and diving (pretending they have been fouled to get a match winning penalty). Faced with this evidence do the footballing authorities take punitive action against the cheats? Oh no, no chance of that! If a player commits a really bad offence (or 2 lesser bad offences) SEEN BY THE REF, he/she gets sent off and is suspended for 1,2 or 3 games – don’t feel too sorry for them though they still get ALL their massive wages, sometimes millions of pounds! Well done the rulers of the Game.

What is the lesson here then? Well, if you are a born cheat, don’t be a bank robber, be a cheating sportsperson – much safer, more financially rewarding, you get a few medals thrown in, and you don’t do time when you get caught!