Let's clean up the game

One of the big football stories of late has been match fixing, or more likely spot fixing, where players deliberately get booked for example rather than fix the whole result. Whatever it is, it is cheating and any players caught should be banned for life.

I know it is huge sums of money on offer, but players aren’t exactly on the poor step are they? I suppose people in all walks of life always want more, just have a look at Parliament these days.

The thing is about deliberate bookings, they have been going on for a while anyway. David Beckham deliberately got sent off in an international a few years back. I’m not saying anything out of turn here because he publicly admitted it, to avoid a trip to an unglamorous far flung venue in the next game. Other players have been booked when one short of a suspension to use it up, some admit it, the majority don’t.

Fans of the clubs concerned wouldn’t mind a ‘tactical’ booking in those circumstances but it does create problems when trying to clamp down on it all.

I don’t suppose that can policed as readily, but those doing it for huge wads of cash should be ousted completely. In the present days of social media overload, it is more difficult to get away with anything, and I hope that it can be eradicated because we don’t want any harm to come to this great game of ours.

Phil Sherwin