Today’s agenda is dominated by unsavoury matters, whether on the field or off it, with tennis in particular the latest major sport to have its reputation damaged by allegations of disgraceful behaviour, reinforcing the need for all involved, not least overly compliant media, to up their game.
- Ex-Hearts manager Jim Jefferies reckons Celtic’s steady decline means the Tynecastle club can challenge for the Scottish title in future seasons - unlike when he was in charge (above)
- Tennis reels from match-fixing claims as world number one Djokovic admits to having been approached
- Hibs reckon they are closing in on Stokes and Thomson
- Kilmarnock chairman Jim Mann urges clubs to put greater good before self-interest and vote in the changes necessary to reinvigorate the Scottish game
- Erik Sviatchenko, warns Scottish strikers he is no soft touch
- Barrie McKay expresses confidence in his ability to hold off the challenge of Rangers newcomers and stresses the importance of Rangers producing their own talent
- Gedion Zelalem advises Arsenal peers to move to Rangers on loan if they get a chance
- Kris Doolan signs new three-and-a-half year deal at Thistle
- Hamilton defender Michael Devlin on facing up to "best striker in Scotland" Leigh Griffiths
- Warrior Wilson could be back in deep trouble after being cited for grabbing opponent’s testicles
- Hogg switches focus to “winning the Six Nations” after latest European failure
- Burnett and Anderson win world pairs title
- Matteo Manassero, golf’s forgotten boy wonder
No joking about this
World No.1 Novak Djokovic admits that his entourage has had to repel the advances of match-fixers
Checking out the new clubmates?
Anthony Stokes spotted in crowd watching Hibs at Falkirk
That's my Bhoy
Celtic's new signing Erik Sviatchenko checks in at Lennoxtown with fiancee Anne Rudmose
Paving the way for others to follow 1
Barrie McKay is keen for other youngsters to follow him into the Rangers first team
Paving the way for others to follow 2
Gedion Zelalem will encourage others to follow him from Arsenal to Ibrox
Staying long-term
Kris Doolan has signed a new deal with Partick Thistle
Bracing himself
Michael Devlin reckons Leigh Griffiths is the best in Scotland
Ball carrier
Ryan Wilson using his hands as he should at Northampton, but the citing officer thinks he did not do so throughout the game
Eternal optimist
Two months ago he reckoned Scotland could win the World Cup and now Stuart Hogg reckons a first Six Nations title win in 16 years is on the horizon
06.05 Radio Scotland sports headlines
Andy Murray up and running at Australian Open... Johana Konta beats Venus Williams... Ryan Wilson cited... and latest calls for SPFL re-structuring
06.35 Radio Five Live sports headlines
Good day for Brits at Australian Open as Johana Konta beats Venus Williams and Andy Murray eases into second round... but Dan Evans and Aljaz Bedene are out... Swansea out of relegation zone with win over Watford... late Jordan Rhodes goal sends Blackburn through in FA Cup.. Chris Ashton cited for gouging and Ryan Wilson for testicle grabbing
Back Pages
Tennis gains what is - Andy Murray successes apart - rare prominence on the back pages of both The National and The Herald but for all the wrong reasons, while The Herald also has news of incomings and outgoings at Celtic and of Glasgow Warriors full-back Stuart Hogg’s contention that Scotland can win the Six Nations Championship. The Evening Times meanwhile leads on Ronny Deila’s main transfer target being to have players settled in ahead of this year’s Champions League qualifiers and carries the claim that Rangers will be contending at the top ‘in a few years’..
Grandstanding – today’s sports comment
In The National Hugh MacDonald offers his analysis of the match-fixing issues in tennis, while Martin Hannan wonders whether the 1966 factor will lead to Britain exiting the EC.
The Herald’s main sports column meanwhile sees Nick Rodger ponder what is threatening to become a sad tale of unfulfilled promise and it is remarkable to contemplate whether, when they set off together in the first two rounds at what was to prove an epic Open Championship, many would have predicted that then 59-year-old Tom Watson would play his last major championship round on the same day as then teenager Matteo Mannessaro.
The likelihood is, of course, that it will not turn out that way, but the way the young Italian, who like the retiring Watson missed the cut at the Open last year, has fallen by the wayside as other even younger players have emerged, has been sufficiently dramatic to merit this attention from The Herald’s golf correspondent.
Lost boy wonder Matteo Mannessaro
Sporting Twitterati
So assaulting a ref, punching, biting, gouging & testicle grabbing. The usual Monday evening rap sheet after a weekend in Europe.
— Nick Mullins (@andNickMullins) January 18, 2016
One veteran rugby tourist, TV commentator Nick Mullins, offers his view on the modern game:
And another, Paul Hayward of the Telegraph, looks more broadly at the way sport as a whole is losing its way:
Increasingly sports writing = crime writing. Why? Because governing bodies don't govern. They chase money. A wild west town with no sheriff.
— Paul Hayward (@_PaulHayward) January 18, 2016
On the back of that the traditionally genteel sport of curling should perhaps be as worried as it is excited by this sort of growth in interest, as recorded by The Curling News:
New record attendance for a curling event in the USA with 62,524 at the #ContCup2016 in #Vegas.
— The Curling News (@curling) January 18, 2016
Meanwhile another that younger viewers now know better as a commentator than as a player reminds us of more innocent times, but upsets his old captain in doing so:
Thanks for making us all feel really old Scott! They were happy days though - shared the Championship in '86 https://t.co/I8n7ROwbRo
— David Sole (@davidsole678) January 18, 2016
Today’s top message
Tennis has become the latest to be afflicted by reports of deep-rooted skulduggery these are dark days for sport.
There have, of course, always been those who are prepared to play fast and loose with the rules to gain a competitive advantage but it is the scale of what has been taking place, as much in the boardrooms as on the field of play, that makes this all so disturbing.
Whether it is the corrupt allocation of events, the fixing of matches, the taking of illicit drugs, or just vicious foul play, it is greed for glory, but mostly just for financial gain that has motivated these repeated atrocities.
However as the media belatedly begins to do its job it is also sad, from within this industry, to have to acknowledge that a great deal of this reputational damage to sports could have been mitigated, if not prevented, by journalists doing their jobs instead of getting too close to the people they should be reporting upon and, indeed, in many instances accepting a form of bribes themselves in the shape of story tip offs by way of payment for not asking too many awkward questions.
Those prepared to do so have too often found themselves marginalised and bullied, often by media colleagues who prefer the easy life of having cosy relationships with the influential figures in their spheres of specialism.
Never have there been more questions to be asked of the great and the good in sport, as much in Scotland as anywhere else where the correlation between the vast increases in the money taken out of sport by administrators and the relentless failure of Scottish teams in particular on the mainstream sporting stages. However it sometimes feels like there have never been fewer asking them while those who continue to try do so are drowned out by the din generated by huge public relations machines.
Thanks for reading. Back with more tomorrow.
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