PERSUASIVE SPEECH

Corruption, a Threat to the Sanity of Modern Sports and Economy as a Whole

It is said that sports unite us. Nowadays a majority of people are either passively or actively engaged in sports, with the most popular sports worldwide being soccer. In fact, it is common to find people gathered together either at their homes or joints, watching at cheering on their favorite teams and sports-persons during weekends, with some of the popular soccer leagues being the Barclays English Premier League and the Spanish la Liga.

Although sports acts as a means of relaxation and enjoyment to the fans, while at the same time generating huge revenue for the clubs and sports-persons, on the real side our sports world is under threat. By threat, I don’t imply terrorism, which has of late taken a different twist altogether particularly with the emergence of ISIS and all the turmoil in the Middle East. Rather, I’d like to draw your attention to the rampant corruption that is tarnishing the good name of our sports in general. This vice were the talk of last year; with the corruption scandal involving the world’s soccer governing body, Fifa, the biggest news in the sporting world.

The news concerning, Fifa was not only a major blow to the soccer world, but to the whole sporting world as a whole. The raid by the Federal Investigations Bureau (FBI), in Zurich not only confirmed the allegations concerning the allocation of the Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 World Cups, but also laid bare how the corruption vice had engulfed Fifa’s operations, with some incidences dating as far back as 2002. These occurrences might not directly have a bearing on our lives, but a deeper look into them will reveal that they have to do have an impact on us and therefore we all ought to stand up and say a big NO! to corruption.

The impact that I am talking about is what economists would normally refer to as the trickle-down effect. Corruption at the top organs, simply implies that the representatives of member states that are subscribed to or rather members of such governing bodies, will likely replicate what is already being done at the top level as evidenced by the shambolic elections and football management that is witnessed within many African states. These member state bodies will then transit these to its local bodies that are normally responsible for talent recruitment and development. In return, sports-persons will be forced to pay bribes or use other un-orthodox means such as doping to force their way into the various teams. The immediate impact of these will be the raw deserving talent that would go into drains due to their inability to raise the alleged funds and in the long run lead to a reduction in the performance of national teams chosen to represent countries at various events. While these will be immediately felt by the die-hard fans who will be calling for better performance from the chosen teams, the major effect will be the dishonesty that will be quietly spreading among the citizens of a country and this will spread to other sectors of the economy which were previously unaffected by the vice.

This simple analogy shows how dangerous the trickle-down effect can be detrimental and dangerous. It is therefore a responsibility of each one of us to be vigilant and keen to not only say NO! to corruption but to report such incidences to the relevant authorities.

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