Commonwealth games

Watching football work itself into a lather of self-righteousness is never a pretty sight. The English FA is now back-pedalling furiously, having sucked up to Fifa top dog Gianni Infantino for years. But if you look back over other recent Fifa head honchos, it is harder to find one who hasn’t been implicated in corruption of some sort than it is to find a TV advert that doesn’t feature Peter Crouch. There’s Joao Havelange; or you may prefer Sepp Blatter of blessed memory; then there’s Cameroon’s Issa Hayatou; and now of course dear old Gianni. All, no doubt, fine family men but not averse to a bit of skulduggery when it mattered.

Common ground The Commonwealth Games began as the British Empire Games in 1930, yet they did not originate in Britain. The event was instigated by a Bobby Robinson, a sports reporter on a local newspaper in Hamilton, Ontario, who also acted as manager for the Canadian track and field team at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam. The games were held in his home town, Hamilton, and 11 countries participated: Canada, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland (which meant the Irish Free State as well as Northern Ireland), Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, British Guiana, Newfoundland and Bermuda. The only women’s events were in swimming.