Andrew Jennings: sports journalists wilfully ignore stories of corruption

"If Russia is guilty of bribing Spanish referees, that's a story. Instead of going after that, they punished the source. Nobody wants to touch the real story."

It comes as no surprise to Jennings that Lord Triesman's comments have been widely poo-pooed. According to him, sports news reporters are guilty of wilfully ignoring major stories of corruption for fear they will lose access to players and matches.

"On every other section of a newspaper, an editor requires his reporters to have audacity, determination, and to hold the buggers to account. Not in sport. As long as they turn up at a football match on time and file the copy, that's all they're interested in. So we have a cabal of sports reporters who succeed by assiduous arse-licking."

SOURCE: The Independent