Modern sport, with it’s appeals and challenges, has lost some of its spirit. NFL challenges, or those in tennis are one thing, but occasions where there is external influence are another.

In last week’s F1 Grand Prix in Belgium fans saw one of the most exciting finishes in recent years. This is exactly what sport is about. However, after the race a conference room full of faceless suits decided the outcome. This is not what sport is about.

Further to that I don’t even think the raft of complaints from fans about the verdict was what sport was about. There are always going to be decisions which go against you, it’s all part of sport, if you enjoy sport you might as well enjoy the times which don’t go your way.

It's now getting to the point where anything even related to drugs, or cheating, is a bigger story than the actual sport. This week saw reports than NASCAR driver Ron Hornaday had been taking testosterone and Human Growth Hormone. It was reported that he'd used them before they were added to NASCAR's list of banned substances, and even then he claimed to be using them due to a medical condition.

Then it was reported that NASCAR would not be punishing him. This is not news! We don’t watch sport to hear about those less fortunate than ourselves, we watch sport to escape.

Where did it all go wrong? Of course cheating is nothing new. In the Olympics it goes back nearly as far as the modern games themselves. The early years of the Olympics are littered with stories of runners taking shortcuts in the marathon, or even hitching lifts in cars. There was even one coach who sought an advantage for his athlete in a mixture of whisky and strychnine.

But they were small and were pretty obviously found out. Only now there seem to be vast internal workings to help athletes cheat and get away with it, helped by coaches, teams and even nations. 

It’s getting to the point when even the places where sport should be at its most innocent are being infected. In junior football leagues we hear of kids as young as 11 employing the same tactics as the players they watch on the TV—the swearing, the diving, the chasing the officials.

Kids should learn to enjoy sport for what it is, and sport is not that. You here of parents of these kids running onto the pitch to complain to the referee about a decision in their kid’s match. I’m all for competitive spirit in children, but there is such a thing as going too far.

Where has real sport gone?

So this weekend, when you watch your favourite sport or team, by all means cheer when your guys win, or boo when the others do. But just watch it as sport, and hope everyone else does.

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