Second Cummings: World Football Rocked by Racism, Corruption, Betting Scandals

To read through the news these days, a football fan almost needs a stiff drink first.

The scandals currently blighting our sport—racism, corruption and betting—are both serious and disturbing. Some cast doubt on the legitimacy of the game, while others cast doubt on the idea that all are equal on the field of competition.

None of them are new, of course. But taken together, they paint a worrying picture for the future of world's most popular sport.

Racism has dogged football for decades, no matter where it's been played or who has played it.

Former England international Viv Anderson and legendary Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough famously dealt with an incident of fruit throwing at Carlisle in the mid-70s (Daily Mail).

American international Oguchi Onyewu filed suit in Belgian court over an incident with Jelle Van Damme in 2009 (Associated Press).

So, too, has financial impropriety followed football.

In 2006, Scottish author Andrew Jennings published Foul!: The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote Rigging and Ticket Scandals, an exposé of world football's governing body.

More recently, allegations have emerged that Qatar won the right to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup by means of corruption (Daily Telegraph).

Likewise, betting and match-fixing date to football's early days.

A 1915 match between Manchester United and Liverpool was reportedly fixed so that United would win and avoid relegation (Soccerlens), and match-fixing scandals have rocked Italy in 2006 and again this summer.

Scandal, then, is nothing new to football. The difference, however, is that this time everything seems to be happening all at once.

Racism has dominated football's headlines for most of a year now.

Liverpool's Luis Suarez served an eight-match ban earlier this year for racially abusing Manchester United's Patrice Evra during a match last fall (BBC Sport).

This summer at Euro 2012, a number of national federations, including Spain and Russia, drew charges over fans' racist chants (Reuters).

This week, however, John Terry has held the spotlight. The veteran Chelsea defender is on trial in British court for allegedly abusing Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand with extreme racist language during a match last October.

Terry is claiming that he was only repeating words that Ferdinand thought Terry had used, in an attempt to defuse the situation. Regardless of the verdict, though, significant damage has already been done to football.

Meanwhile, as the latest Italian match-fixing affair rages, former Southampton player Claus Lundekvam is caught up in a betting scandal of his own making. The charges are so serious that a number of Lundekvam's former teammates are scrambling to distance themselves from the situation (The Independent).

Then there are the most recent allegations of corruption within FIFA.

In a report published Wednesday, The Guardian's David Conn cites Swiss legal documents that claim former FIFA president João Havelange was paid "huge bribes" in connection with television rights for the 2002 and 2006 World Cups.

The documents, which were published by The Guardian on Thursday, are damning, and it's likely Havelange's legacy will be affected negatively.

These days it's not all bad for football, of course.

Spain's historic dominance of the international game continues to attract new fans and awe the old.

Real Madrid and Barcelona maintain their fierce rivalry in Spain while Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi maintain a personal rivalry that almost defies belief.

And the English Premier League season reached a dramatic climax on its final day last May.

But with the startling number of negative stories hounding football at the same time, it's hard not to wonder whether the current era could be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

Follow @MikeCummings37