I love sour grapes - Olympics, angry Ted and Italian conspiracies

Here is some food for thought - how much match fixing goes on in sport? Are we only aware of the trimmings that are revealed public? What if most fixing goes unnoticed or is not followed up on?

Ponder this - would it really be that impossible to believe that match fixing occurred at the 2007 Rugby World Cup? That Sir Graham Henry is correct in his assertions?

I know, the All Blacks could have taken a dropped-goal, and Ted could of organized his substitutions and selections better, but there is every possibility that this could be more than just sour grapes from the 2011 Rugby World Cup winning coach. Graham Henry is not stupid. Has he become deluded in his old age? Maybe.

It was revealed in the Sunday Star Times (29th July 2012), through an extract of Sir Graham Henry's book that he was astounded at the lop-sided penalty count against his All Blacks. The French were only penalized twice throughout the 80 minutes by referee Wayne Barnes and constantly offside. The forward pass was witnessed by everyone present at Cardiff that day apart from the three men that matter most. The sin binning of Luke McAllister was nothing short of ridiculous.

It is sad that the values that once dominated sport are becoming obsolete. In ancient Greek times the Olympics was about the natural body, harmony, an escape from the troubles of everyday life. There was no corruption, no capitalist ethic; amateur, ordinary people would compete for their people and cities.

Fast-forward to the present where money and power rules. People do too much in order to either gain a financial profit or adopt a "win at all costs" attitude by taking performance enhancing drugs or fixing a match.

If someone offers you some money to do something - whether it be to bowl a no-ball in cricket or remove impartiality from a whole sporting event - you would probably do it if the lure is that great.

In October 2011,Canterbury Bulldogs player Ryan Tandy was found to guilty of match-fixing. Tandy was fined $4000 for giving away a penalty in front of his goal line two minutes into a 2010 match against the North Queensland Cowboys. Before kick-off, large sums of money were put on the "first scoring play" option of a two-point penalty. The Cowboys, unfortunately for all those punters, decided to take a tap and work towards the tryline.

After only a few days, the London 2012 Olympics have already had their handful of suspensions. What happened to the three Olympic oaths (athletes, judges, coaches) that were read out during the opening ceremony?

These oaths, I unfortunately believe, are non-existent across many sports. Here is what the judges/referees are supposedly promising: "In the name of all the judges and officials, I promise that we shall officiate in these Olympic Games with complete impartiality, respecting and abiding by the rules which govern them in the true spirit of sportsmanship."

So back to the Cardiff nightmare, did Wayne Barnes really referee that game completely without bias when you look at the stats and, as Henry did, the videotape?

These recent revelations from Henry has brought back very unfortunate memories for myself. They have haunted me every day I read, hear, or view anything to do with Italian football. I admit the Calciopoli scandal in 2006 was an embarrassment to Italian football, but this is not what I am talking about.

At Euro 2004, Italy had to beat Bulgaria and hope that Sweden and Denmark did not play out a 2-2 draw. Believe it or not, the Scandinavians did exactly that, exchanging goals, including an 89th minute equaliser to Sweden, to knock Italy out of the tournament. Italy were not at their best during this tournament, but still, another example of an unusual occurrence.

Italy and Spain were two of the favourites to win the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Korea/Japan, the first time the global showpiece was staged in Asia. Remember the money rules argument above? The further the hosts advanced in a tournament, the more the population will maintain interest and the more money that will presumably be made. Am I right in saying that France co-hosted the 2007 Rugby World Cup? Coincidence anyone?

Italy or Spain had just as much right as any other team to win that tournament. They had no god-given right to do so, but this following discussion will sound like sour grapes. Like Sir Graham, I will analyse some videotapes.

When Italy played Croatia in the group stage, they were off their game defensively, so you could argue that they did not play well enough to win the game. Does that make it alright to forget about the controversial decisions just because you were not the best team on the day? Chrisitan Vieri had a goal disallowed for offside shortly after he had given Italy the lead. Replays show he was clearly onside. In injury time with Croatia up 2-1, Filipo Inzaghi was penalized for shirt pulling as a long ball by Marco Materazzi rolled over the goal line. It is blatantly obvious there was no shirt pulling on Inzaghi's part.

The two goals disallowed for offside against Mexico were very tight and I will accept that they were tough calls to make for the linesman.

The quarterfinal against South Korea was a perfect example of how sport is beyond the point of corruption. The Koreans were constantly fouling the Italians the whole game, yet Italy are far from innocent because of their strong history of diving among other teams. So at times it was hard to tell who was at fault when not counting the kicks to the head. Damiano Tomassi scored the golden goal but was, again, ruled offside. Shortly after, Totti was sent off for diving in the penalty box, another disputed call and Korea scored the golden goal. After Italy's elimination, coach Trapattoni cried out conspiracy.

Spain also had their fair share of controversial calls go against them in their quarterfinal against South Korea. For example, a Spaniard crossed the ball into the goal box which was then converted, but the linesman had ruled that the ball had crossed the touchline before it was crossed.

Referee for the Italy-Korea match, Byron Moreno, was suspended for 20 matches later on in 2002 after some poor officiating in an Ecuadorian football match. Moreno signalled six minutes of injury time but did not blow the whistle until 13 minutes had passed. After coming back from suspension in 2003 Moreno was again suspended, then decided to retire from refereeing altogether. It seems that final justice was served when Moreno was caught smuggling heroin at JFK Airport at the end of 2010. He was later sentenced to two and a half years in prison.

FIFA, unlike the IRB with Barnes in 2007, launched an official investigation into Moreno during 2002 after his performances. Graham Henry has argued in his book that there should be some sort of investigation process in rugby.

Sport is full of corruption and it is very sad for a passionate sports nut like myself. In conclusion, I will not be surprised one bit if, in several years time, Wayne Barnes makes a confession. What if Dan Carter or Luke McAllister were paid to not take a drop-goal that same day? It sounds more ridiculous than being paid to give away a penalty but we might know one day. Bring back the days of amateurism in the good old times of ancient Greece.