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We are concerned at Poker Shark HQ with all the Cheating in Sport.  Thierry Henry has really let the side down and Poker is not innocent in all this, wherever there is money to be made the line between sportsmanship and deception can easily be crossed.  We have teamed up with our friends at Talking Sports to bring you an update on what is going on out there. 

There have been some amazing events in the world of sport of late. Usain Bolt’s amazing performance in the World Championships, Roger Federer’s Wimbledon dominance, Tom Watson rolling back the years in the Open and the football transfer records being blown out of the water by Real Madrid all stick in the mind. 

It is these types of performances that bring us, the fans, back time after time; the spectacle, the occasion and the romance adding to the traits so sought after in any sport. Then there is the dark side of sport. The side that has come out far too regularly over the past months. For every Usain Bolt we have a doping cheat and for every dominating performance by Federer we have a footballer ready to throw himself to ground or a rugby player ready to feign injury. 

We live in a celebrity obsessed society, we essentially crave scandal, yet for sport fans it is not a Jordan or Peter type character that we take umbrage at but instead, a Tom Williams or Dean Richards type. Sports stars, more than most, perform within a fishbowl, all eyes on them every minute, whether on or off duty. Essentially the love of sport and the love of the scandal that comes with it feeds our escapist desire, to leave every day life and immerse yourself in a different world, a world which there can be no heroes without villains. 

There is a great speech, made by Al Pacino’s character in the sports film Any Given Sunday about inches. An inspirational speech urging his team to be willing to die for each other in order to grab those inches that makes up the game/life. 

“You find out that life is just a game of inches…”

“We CLAW with our finger nails for that inch. Cause we know when we add up all those inches that's going to make the f*cking difference between WINNING and LOSING…”

“The inches we need are everywhere around us…”

It’s easy to relate to when we look at our own sports stars, but while the speech was talking about coming together as a team, showing fight and spirit to overcome, it seems that our guys have taken to grabbing inches by any means possible ie cheating in sport they once wouldn't have dreamed in cheating in. Where, though, do we draw the ever-so fine line between gamesmanship and cheating in sport?

The buzz word du jour in football is diving. Eduardo’s well publicised effort against Celtic earned him a two match ban from UEFA but this has been happening in football for as long as anyone can remember. In my opinion the ban is actually harsh, yes we need to try and minimise the amount of diving going on but there needs to be a certain consistency. 

3 days later when Man Utd played Arsenal, Eboue performed an even worse dive, got booked (the official punishment) and was consequently subbed by Wenger. To me this is a much more fitting punishment, and one that sets a great precedent in comparison to the one set by UEFA with Eduardo. You could argue that the majority of dives are players looking to gain those inches by pushing the boundaries to the extreme but I’m not convinced UEFA got this right. 

FIFA’s punishment of Chelsea was absolutely spot on though. Having racked up numerous fines and settlements from previous cases involving the transfers of younger players they were banned from making transfers at any level until after the January 2010 window after inducing Gael Kakuta of Lens to breach his contract. Now let’s be fair to Chelsea, it’s obviously not just them doing it, but it’s right for FIFA to take a stand of such magnitude. Effectively the clubs involved know what they are doing and therefore it’s a pre-meditated attempt to gain an unfair advantage. Maybe this is the key to what constitutes cheating, I doubt Eduardo pre-meditated going down easily before the match started. The next example is a great example of pre-meditated cheating.

Dean Richards and Harlequins rugby club managed to almost execute one of the most ridiculous and blatant cheating attempts in modern sport. Telling Tom Williams to chew on a fake blood capsule to instigate a blood replacement, in the form of a specialist drop-goal kicker is pretty awful and the punishment handed out certainly befits the crime, with large fines and a three year ban for Richards. Forget about taking inches, this was just taking the piss. 

Swimming is a great example of athletes pushing the boundaries of gamesmanship to the limits with the suits that they perform in. The amount of records broken at the Rome World Championships, records not broken in over 20 years, left many swimmers dismayed and resulted in Michael Phelps’ trainer saying he wouldn’t compete in future events. Thankfully they have been banned from early next year and the sport can get back to what it is all about – athletes in their prime trying to out swim each other through sheer talent and hard work.

In the modern age where sport provides a great outlet to fans worldwide to escape, there is more pressure than ever to win, to perform to the highest level and to gain those coveted inches. Sometimes when the pressure gets too much, some stars push it too far, but is it us fans who create this pressure. We certainly play our part as we crave drama, we crave action and without the scandal that comes with most sports would we really be contented?

Talking Sports has a fantastic reputation in picking winners and weekly sporting tips can be found on the site as well as a plenty of free sports bets with some of the best bookmakers in the business.  For example Ladbrokes are giving new players a £10 free bet If you have any comments on this story please go to Talking Sports

Don't forget that the Eurpoean Championship of Online Poker  (ECOOP V) started today, get to Titan Poker if you want part of the $4.5 million prize pool.

Poker Shark does not condone cheating in sport.