JUNE 3 ― The sporting world has once again been surrounded by the stench of corruption in the last few days, serving another reminder that even our leisure pursuits are subject to the darker side of human nature.

Most notably, Qatar’s success in winning the vote to host the 2022 World Cup Finals has come under fresh attack following revelations in British newspaper The Sunday Times that leading officials received bribes to support the bid.

As revelations go, it’s about as surprising as the news that Tuesday follows Monday, but it adds more yet another heap of evidence to support the strong suspicion that foul play was involved when the bidding process reached its conclusion in December 2010.

The whole shenanigans is already under internal investigation from FIFA, who appear to have finally come to the rather belated realisation that awarding the event to Qatar was a rather stupid idea in the first place ― irrespective of whether corruption was involved, the small size of the country, lack of infrastructure for masses of visitors, concerns over weather and potential disruption to the club calendar add up to make it an entirely unsuitable venue.

Judging from the rhetoric adopted by FIFA president Sepp Blatter and his cronies in the last few weeks, the world’s governing body seems to be rather encouraging the ongoing investigation being led by US-based lawyer Michael Garcia to reach the conclusion that regulations had been breached, thus providing a nice ‘get out’ card and allowing them to order a re-vote.

It’s a sorry mess of FIFA’s own making, but at least we can be optimistic that the right lessons can be learned and the long-term legacy will be a more transparent and clean voting process for future tournaments.

The whole episode has been a never-ending saga of negative recriminations and accusations throughout the three and a half years since the vote was made. Even an organisation as inward-looking and self-satisfied as FIFA will be eager to avoid such a nonsense in the future, so they surely will have the necessary self-awareness to ensure their processes are refined and improved. Let us hope so.

In another sport, cricket has been plunged into yet another match-fixing controversy following allegations against former New Zealand international Lou Vincent, who has confessed to manipulating action in order to receive illegal payments from bookmakers.

Although Vincent is at the centre of the allegations he is far from the only player involved, with fellow New Zealander Chris Cairns ― a marvellous all-rounder at his peak ― also heavily implicated, putting to rest the ridiculous (and racist) theory that only players from the Asian subcontinent are vulnerable to getting involved with match-fixing.

It’s always a somewhat soul-destroying experience whenever headlines of the Lou Vincent/Qatar 2022 nature dominate the sports pages.

As sport is supposed to represent the lighter side of life (it’s significant that we “play” sport rather than “work” sport), it would be nice to think that it could be immune from the selfish and greedy immorality to which human nature is sadly prone.

That, however, is an entirely forlorn hope. Sadly, we have to accept the fact that human beings ― even successful, wealthy and glamorous examples of the species ― are beset by weaknesses and frailties, often seemingly unable to resist the lure of temptation.

Considering its modern incarnation as big business offering big bucks and its inherently competitive nature, which unavoidably appeals to our darker, most selfish instincts, it’s simply inevitable that sport has always been and will always be subject to moral depravities as much as, if not more than, any other field of human endeavour.

That doesn’t mean, however, we should simply accept it and shrug our shoulders at the inescapable conclusion that bad boys will be bad boys, come what may, burying our heads in the sand and resigning ourselves to the depressing fact that sport will continue to be routinely afflicted by episodes of corruption.

On the contrary. Rather, we should do everything within our power to ensure that sport is as meritocratic as possible, giving success, recognition and rewards to those who work hardest and display the most talent, rather than those who are the best at cheating.

Cheaters will cheat (or fair players tempted into cheating) whenever they can get away with it, so opportunities to do so must be limited. The evils of corruption can never be completely eliminated, but they can be minimised by a combination of strong preventative measures and heavy punishments for transgressors.

This can only be done with thorough and painstaking regulation, at all levels of sport both on and off the field. At the moment, that is not always the case and a huge range of actions could be taken both on and off the field of play.

Whether it’s footballers diving to win penalties (retrospective, technology-based red cards), much more rigorous drug testing procedures, more accountability and transparency amongst governing bodies, far more financial resources committed to combating match-fixing, a number of steps can and should be taken.

And as sports fans, all of us should, whenever possible, express our determination to minimise ― even if we can’t completely banish ― the impact of corruption. It's not just a part of being a fan; it's a moral obligation.

*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.