FIFA's new financial report isn't just the financial story of last year; it also offers a fascinating window onto the future.

This is in the form of the football governing body's budget for the 2015-2018 business cycle.

Readers shouldn't look on this as set in concrete; some might say it isn't even set in custard: not even Madame FIFA can gaze into her crystal ball with anything approaching infallibility.

But it does offer an informative glimpse into how FIFA President Joseph Blatter and his chums think the medium-term future might pan out.

So what does it tell us?

Well, for one thing, FIFA's revenue base is expected to continue growing at a healthy lick.

The plan budgets revenue of a nice round $5 billion (£3 billion/€3.5 billion).

This is up nearly one-third on the $3.8 billion (£2.3 billion/€2.8 billion) it said in its 2009 report it was working on the basis of for the current 2011-2014 period.

Television rights, predominantly for the 2018 World Cup, should still bring in the majority of this, a projected $2.7 billion (£1.6 billion/€1.9 billion).

But marketing rights, which for these purposes includes ticketing and hospitality, are catching up fast.

Income of $2.3 billion (£1.4 billion/€1.7 billion) is expected, which is 44 per cent up on the $1.6 billion (£967 million/€1.1 billion) initially pencilled in for 2011-2014.

But things only get really interesting when you start to look at how FIFA thinks it might spend this money.

Both in its latest report and in 2009, FIFA sub-divides its quadrennial spending pot into six core areas: development projects; the World Cup; other competitions; football governance; operational expenses; and a relatively small amount for rights exploitation.

Guess which of these areas are earmarked to receive the biggest increases when you compare the planned 2015-2018 budget with that originally set out for 2011-2014?

More than $2 billion has been set aside to help Russia prepare to host the 2018 World Cup ©Getty Images

One of them is FIFA's glitziest competition, the 2018 World Cup, to be staged in Vladimir Putin's resurgent Russia, which is set to swallow 43 per cent of those projected $5 billion (£3 billion/€3.5 billion) revenues.

The $2.15 billion (£1.29 billion/€1.55 billion) currently budgeted for it is up a hefty 55.5 per cent on the $1.385 billion (£837 million/€1.003 billion) budgeted four years ago for this year's World Cup in Brazil.

It should be said, though, that accumulated expenses recognised in connection with the 2014 World Cup had, in actual fact, already reached $1.436 billion (£868 million/€1.040 billion) by the end of 2013 - ie nearly six months before a ball is kicked.

This is not, though, the biggest cycle-on-cycle budget increase.

That privilege falls to "operational expenses and services" - basically, as far as I can see, the amount sucked in by the central FIFA organisation.

The budget for this in 2015-2018 is put at $990 million (£598 million/€717 million) - an eye-popping 69.2 percent more than the $585 million (£354 million/€424 million) budgeted in 2009 for the same area for the 2011-2014 period.

Many of the detailed cost centres have been relabelled between 2009 and 2013, though it is plain enough that the human resources budget has leapt from $270 million (£163 million/€196 million) to $451 million (£273 million/€327 million) - that's up 67 per cent.

"Building and maintenance" [$47 million (£28 million/€34 million) for 2011-2014] has become "buildings and maintenance incl. FIFA Museum" [$124 million (£75 million/€90 million) for 2015-2018].

FIFA's revenues continue to expand ©Getty Images

The catch-all "other" category has grown from $97 million (£59 million/€70 million) budgeted for 2011-2014 to $228 million (£138 million/€165 million) for 2015-2018.

And what of development projects?

Well the budget for these has also been ratcheted up, but by a comparatively meagre 12.5 per cent -from $800 million (£484 million/€580 million) to $900 million (£544 million/€652 million).

This, remember, in the context of overall revenues projected to rise by 31.6 per cent.

If I were a coach or official from one of FIFA's poorer national associations, then, studying these figures, I would certainly want to know what justifies a shift of priorities of this magnitude: four years ago, operational expenses and services were allotted a budget $215 million (£130 million/€156 million) smaller than development projects; this year, their budget for the coming four-year cycle is $90 million (£54 million/€65 million) bigger.

That is some swing.

Looking at these numbers, it is hard not to conclude that the poorer members of Mr Blatter's football family are going to be left with a smaller proportion of FIFA's still fast-expanding cake over the four years leading up to the 2018 World Cup.

The 2015-18 budget also makes plain that, with reserves standing at $1.43 billion (£865 million/€1.03 billion) at end-2013, the era of deliberate reserve-building at FIFA is soon to end.

One consequence of this is that the governing body's 2015-2018 planning calls for a balanced budget over the cycle, once depreciation and taxes are taken into account.

This means, in turn, as the financial report notes, that individual annual results "may even be negative".

Projections accompanying the text suggest, indeed, that FIFA may suffer deficits of as much as $30 million (£18 million/€22 million), after depreciation and taxes, in 2015 and $20 million (£12 million/€14.5 million) in 2016.

These would be balanced by a $50 million surplus (£30 million/€36 million) in World Cup year, 2018.

Contrast this with the pattern from 2007-10, when cumulative surpluses totalling more than $600 million (£363 million/€435 million) doubled reserves from $643 million (£389 million/€466 million) to $1.28 billion (£774 million/€928 million).

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 World Cup and London 2012. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed here .

Team GB's successes in Sochi, with set medal targets exceeded in both the Winter Olympics and subsequent Paralympics, have rightly been extolled by funding body UK Sport who jubilantly cite their policy of National Lottery and Exchequer investment on a "no compromise" basis as a prime reason for the current euphoria.

Fair enough. Like the golden days of 2012, it couldn't have happened without such a huge infusion of public dosh.

But this "no-time-for-losers" philosophy continues to attract opprobrium, challenged by those less successful sports, notably basketball and water polo, which have been cast into the financial wilderness, and is now set to become a political hot potato with the former Labour Sports Minister Kate Hoey taking up the cudgel in Parliament on their behalf.

The former Northern Ireland high jump champion, currently MP for Vauxhall and sports adviser to London Mayor Boris Johnson, was hugely popular among sports people when she was Minister from 1999 until 2001, and seen very much as a champion of the grass rooters.

She has told insidethegames she is "deeply dismayed" by the continuing hardline approach to funding, with UK Sport accused of abandoning team sports and some women's sports, and plans to raise the issue at Westminster.

Kate Hoey, pictured here with London Mayor Boris Johnson, says she is "deeply dismayed" by UK Sport's approach to funding ©Getty Images



"Basically the system is unfair," she says. "Of course we all want to see GB winning medals but sport is more than just about that.

"I am really quite concerned that in the aftermath of the London Olympics those who make the decisions about funding only do so on the basis of potential gold medals. It is a dreadful philosophy.

"I am particularly unhappy about basketball which is such a growing and inspirational sport.

"Just to keep on funding the already successful sport, and especially massively increasing those like sailing - (awarded an extra £25 million ($41 million/€30 million) - to the detriment of others is too simplistic a way of allocating public money."

She adds: "I believe that every sport which competes in the Olympics should have a basic funding, and team sports certainly should not be discriminated against as appears to be the case now.

"It is so disheartening. Maybe I am a little old-fashioned but there is a wider issue here than just winning medals. Sport should always be for all, not just an elite few."

Hoey says she will be lobbying MPs of all parties, bringing an interesting exchange with the present Sports Minister, Helen Grant - the first woman since Hoey herself to hold the job - and her own Party's Shadow spokesman Clive Efford. Both have expressed support for the status quo, former London cabbie Efford telling insidethegames recently: "UK Sport has an outstanding record in supporting athletes and sports that bring success at the highest level...I do not think it is for politicians to try to pick and choose which sports are going to be successful and which are not at the elite end of competition."

Sports minister Helen Grant says she sees no need to change the policy of UK Sports
©Getty Images




While Grant maintains: "My door is always open but UK Sports policy has always been very successful and I don't see a change in the immediate future."

No boat rocking there then.

However, it is clear the both the Government and UK Sport are under mounting pressure to address the "bias" in funding between elite individual and team sports, highlighted when five of the latter - basketball, women's water polo, visually impaired football and goalball - failed to overturn the decision to strip them of all their funding in the build-up to the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, a potentially crippling loss of several millions of pounds of Lottery support.

Hoey's backing - allied to that of Paralympic icon Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson in the House of Lords - will be welcomed by the chairman of British Basketball, Roger Moreland and British Swimming's chief executive David Sparkes, who have branded the cuts "a very dark and sad day for British sport".

"Basketball has a grassroots base bigger than any other British Olympic team sport," argues Moreland. "A funding system with nearly £350 million ($579 million/€418 million) available for elite sport cannot be working to the best of its ability, if it can leave sports like basketball behind."

Great Britain's synchronised swimmers have achieved all their performance indicators but are still losing UK Sport funding ©AFP/Getty Images



Sparkes says he finds the synchronised swimming decision "illogical" because the case presented to UK Sport for a duet to medal in Tokyo in 2020 was a strong one.

I had a problem last week and at the time it felt like a pretty big one.

After arriving in Rio De Janeiro for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Coordination Commission following an 11-hour flight and checking into my hotel at 11pm I switched on my laptop and was greeted by an ominous "popping" sound followed by an utter refusal to display any sign of life.

After no amount of prodding and probing by me - and more technically efficient hotel staff -  brought about any improvement, I was faced with the terrifying prospect of being alone in a far-off country working without my number one tool of the trade and no way of filing a story.

Of course, after sleeping off my frustration, I realised it was not really a terrifying prospect at all. It took only a glance out of the window towards Copacabana Bay to remind me that instead of worrying I should be making the most of my time in a city as beautiful as Rio.

Thanks to the kind loan of a spare by the Rio 2016 Organising Committee I was ultimately spared the problem of having no way to work and was even granted the privilege of spending one afternoon working in the main Rio 2016 office floor due to the lack of an alternative power source. 

Being without a laptop felt at first like the journalistic equivalent of going into battle without wearing armour ©Getty Images



But the experience got me thinking about times when equipment has malfunctioned in sport.

This is something that happens less and less in the professional world of today, although it still does occasionally.

One example close to my heart relates to problems with contact lenses. I can think of multiple occasions when rugby players have mysteriously started rustling their hands along the ground only for one player to gesticulate at their eye in reference to a missing lens. And they are not easy to find I can testify...

Perhaps the best known contact lens malfunction happened to the future world number one tennis player Novak Djokovic in a World Tour Finals match against arch-nemesis Rafael Nadal in 2010. The Serbian suffered a heavy loss after being unable to see properly due to double vision caused by a shifting lens and, despite trying three different lenses, he was unable to remedy the problem.

For an example of an athlete overcoming a handicap, you need only to look at the first great Ethiopian distance runner Abebe Bikila. When shoe sponsor Adidas produced only ill-fitting shoes ahead of the marathon at Rome 1960, Bikila made the impromptu decision to run barefoot and promptly won the gold medal in a world record time.

When asked afterwards why he had done so, Bikila replied: "I wanted the whole world to know that my country, Ethiopia, has always won with determination and heroism."

Abeba Bikila barefooting his way to marathon victory at Rome 1960 ©AFP/Getty Images





In the Olympics there is a rich heritage of athletes being helped by others when their equipment malfunctions.

This was seen most recently in Sochi when a Canadian coach lent a Russian cross-country skier a spare pole when his was lost, before German skiers and biathletes were lent kit by the Russians after experiencing problems with their own gear.

At Beijing 2008 we had a controversial ending to the 49er sailing competition when the leading Danish duo suffered a broken mast at the beginning of the final race and promptly swapped boats with out-of-contention Croatia before holding off their rivals, and several appeals, to win the gold medal.

Denmark trimphed in Croatian colours at Beijing 2008 ©Getty Images



The most famous example occurred many years before at Innsbruck 1964 when Italian bobsleigh star Eugenio Monti provided a spare bolt to fix the broken sled of British rivals Tony Nash and Robin Dixon midway through a competition in which Britain took gold and Italy silver.

In non-Olympic sports this sort of behaviour is less common. Although it is a regular feature of Sunday league matches I was unable to find many examples of a footballer turning out for an opposing team.

Yet there are many cases of teams borrowing the kit of an opposing team, including at the 1978 World Cup when France ended up wearing the green and white stripes of local Argentinian side Kimberley after black and white television proved unable to distinguish between their initial strip and that of opponents Hungary.

Cycling is another sport rich with camaraderie and sporting gestures. Riders within a team will regularly swap bikes when a leading rider suffers a mechanical problem, but riders from opposing teams will often slow down to wait for a rival when they are struck by equipment failure.

A recent example occurred during the 2012 Tour De France when Team Sky's race leader Sir Bradley Wiggins halted the peloton to wait for rival Cadel Evens after the Australian was one of many riders to puncture after an unknown saboteur covered the road with tacks.

Rather unorginally Wiggins was christened "Le Gentleman" by the French media following this act...

Sir Bradley Wiggins slows the peloton down during the 2012 Tour de France ©Getty Images





Once again, this behaviour is less common in other sports. Earlier this month during the New York City Half Marathon, Kenya's Geoffrey Mutai took advantage of rival Mo Farah tripping and falling by surging clear to win the race ahead of the Briton.

We also had a bizarre case in bobsleigh when Manuel Machata was banned for a year by the German Bobsleigh Luge and Skeleton Federation for lending a personal sled to Russian rival Alexander Zubkov ahead of him winning two gold medals in Sochi.

I am not condoning the behaviour of Mutai or the German Federation - with the exchange of money in the latter case casting aspersions over the sportsmanship of the gesture -  but it is important that these values of fair play and helping others should continue in sport as in other areas. 

For life is a struggle to find ways to overcome obstacles but, as I discovered last week in Rio, it would be an awful lot harder to do this without the help and assistance of others.

Nick Butler is a reporter for insidethegames. To follow him on Twitter click here.

Success comprises in itself the seeds of its own decline and sport is not spared by this law. Baron Pierre de Coubertin

It is not quite as catchy as Karl Marx's similar dictum concerning capitalism; nonetheless, I have been reminded of the good baron's observation in recent weeks while scrutinising the UK's elite performance funding strategy.

Readers will know that this has been instrumental in boosting Great Britain's medals tally to undreamt of heights over the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympiads.

We at insidethegames have been fulsome in our admiration; almost the first person I rang when I got off the plane from China was the UK Sport communications head to set up an interview with the system's architect-in-chief, Peter Keen, and his terrier Lucy.

In recent months, though, the so-called "No Compromise" system has been applied to dash the Olympic and Paralympic hopes of scores of GB athletes, particularly those practicing team sports.

Having brooded over this for some weeks now, I keep coming back to the same question: why oh why did Britain set such an elevated – and public - medals target for Rio 2016, and why oh why did it set it so early, with the London 2012 Paralympic Cauldron scarcely cold?

It seems at best naïve, at worst hubristic.

Britain's medal haul at Beijing 2008 owed much to the UK's elite performance funding strategy, and it got even better at London 2012 ©Getty Images



Contrast this, at any rate, with the approach last time around, when the official target was set at 48 medals, a figure most observers felt would, with a fair wind, be comfortably exceeded (as indeed it was) - and set prudently late in the day on July 4 2012.

Unlike some peers, I do not think the new target of becoming the first nation to be more successful in both the Olympic and Paralympic Games post hosting is unattainable.

Britain, after all, won eight fewer Paralympic gold medals in London than Beijing, even though its overall tally was higher.

I do, however, think that the Rio 2016 goal is pitched at the absolute upper edge of what is realistically feasible – and that is with two extra Olympic sports on the programme compared with London, and on my assumption that individual track cycling events may be opened to more than one athlete per country.

The point is rather a) that we seem to have passed up an opportunity in the post-London 2012 glow to assess in depth whether No Compromise remains appropriate to the best interests of the nation now that Britain has been transformed from Olympic also-ran to podium fixture; and b) that UK Sport is subjecting itself to heaps of unnecessary pressure.

It is interesting that while high-performance funding was completely removed from six sports, including five team-sports, in the recent annual investment review, more cash was ladled into medal-rich areas such as sailing, canoeing, judo and taekwondo.

Will Britain's male cyclists be penalised in their Olympic funding for a poor medal showing at the Track Cycling World Championships? ©Getty Images



Supporters of the continued application of No Compromise will argue that that is exactly the point: that funding should be focused where podium success is most probable.

I wonder whether officials would have felt the need to act quite so brutally towards sports which, though not realistic short-term medal prospects, have steadily established themselves as skilled and respectable international performers without this target hanging over them.

I wonder too how it can be in the national interest for teams that are ranked let's say from about 10th to 20th in the world to face abrupt decline or disbandment because all their elite performance money has been yanked.

I shall be interested to see the funding reaction to the recent failure by Britain's men to win a single medal at the 2014 Track Cycling World Championships: will the team be penalised, with more cash directed to successful performers (such as Britain's track cycling women); or will the conclusion be that more money is needed to keep up with French triple gold medallist François Pervis and stand a chance of maintaining the phenomenal strike rate of recent years?

In the meantime, Britain is effectively contracting out of true Olympic team sports – all but – with only hockey remaining on UK Sport's high-performance funding list.

(The country will presumably also field a rugby sevens team in 2016, but this venture does not benefit from UK Sport Rio cycle money.)

Look at things this way and this situation will perhaps not surprise you.

UK Sport is spending somewhere around £272 million on Olympic sports over the cycle and needs to bag 66 medals to hit its target.

That averages out at just over £4 million per medal.

Even if hockey wins both possible medals, they will have cost more than £8 million each, about double the average.

Sixteen of Britain's 114 Olympic medallists at London 2012 came courtesy of hockey ©Getty Images



Measured in this way, team sports are expensive.

One way of transforming this picture is to switch the focus from the number of medals to the number of medallists/potential inspirational role models.

Hockey was responsible for 16 of Britain's 114 Olympic medallists at London 2012 – 14 percent.

The proportion of Britain's female Olympic medallists contributed by the sport is significantly higher.

These role models are particularly important because of the role team activities have traditionally played in attracting children to sport and keeping the country active.

Baroness King of Bow made this point particularly powerfully this week in a House of Lords debate on Olympic and Paralympic legacy that you might easily have missed as it took place on Budget night.

"Team sports are the ones that kids are most likely to play," she said, "the sports we all remember playing as kids.

"They are the sports where you get the most bang for your buck in terms of grass-roots participation.

"They are the sports kids want to play.

"These sports will arguably do most to keep the London 2012 flame alive.

"How perverse would it be for our elite medal quest to reduce the sporting participation of British kids and shrink our sporting talent pool?"

Basketball is one of the sports to have had its funding completely cut by UK Sport ©Getty Images



It seems plain to me that a portion of UK Sport's £350 million for Olympic and Paralympic performance funding should be ring-fenced for pure team sports.

This would enable them to compete against each other for cash, rather than to be thrown in with individual sports under a system which, I am satisfied, is biased, inadvertently, against them.

Yes, as someone suggested to me this week, this would – in the short term – take money out of the pockets of potential medallists.

But it would help to ensure that we support as broad a range of sporting role models as possible to inspire people around the country.

And it would counter what seems to me a potentially pernicious trend that might take root if No Compromise acquired the status of an unquestioned long-term fixture: that we would slowly become more and more adept at fewer and fewer disciplines, winning every possible rowing, cycling, equestrian and sailing medal and scarcely bothering to enter anything else.

Success comprises in itself the seeds of its own decline and sport is not spared by this law. Baron Pierre de Coubertin

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 World Cup and London 2012. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed here.

Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 3. The old Ian Dury and the Blockheads classic just came into my head this week, and I'm glad, because it has subliminally replaced a very annoying French pop song involving whistling which I didn't turn off quickly enough while driving recently.

But enough of my personal torment.

"18-wheeler Scammells, Domenecker camels
All other mammals plus equal votes
Seeing Piccadilly, Fanny Smith and Willy
Being rather silly, and porridge oats..."

Sorry, just had to run a few of those Dury lyrics past you there. They don't make 'em like that any more! And I'm not referring to Scammell lorries, although probably they do make 'em like that still.

Anyway, what I thought was....oh Hell, let's say it with lyrics while we're at it...

The late, lamented Ian Dury ©Hulton Archive/Getty Images

"...if this ever changing world in which we're living

Makes you give in and cry..."

Thank you Paul McCartney and Live and Let Die.

So yes, if this ever changing world is oppressing just a little right now, what with all the news and that, I thought perhaps a little tonic from the realms of sport might be in order, so hereby commend to your attention, shamelessly, three Reasons To Be Cheerful which have emerged in the space of the last week.

Reason to be Cheerful, Part 1.

In Saturday's Abu Dhabi triathlon, held on the Formula 1 Yas Marina Circuit, British brothers Alistair and Jonny Brownlee, respectively gold and bronze medallists at the London 2012 Games, decided to cross the line together arm-in-arm as they set a new course record, completing the 1.5 kilometre swim, 100km bike ride and 10km run in 3 hours 12min 21sec. Their nearest challenger was more than four minutes behind.

How much of an "aah" factor is that?

Takes you right back to the first London Marathon in 1981, when Dick Beardsley and Inge Simonsen decided to do the same thing at the finish.

As far as the Yorkshire brothers are concerned, however, sharing the spoils of victory is something of a familiar sensation.

"We have finished like that lots of times," said Jonathan the younger. "In domestic races we have. Once in 2011 in Madrid in one of the World Series races we did it for the first time.

"Alistair dropped me that time and then waited for me. So we've done it a few times."

Did you hear that, Mr Vince "Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing" Lombardi?

Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 2. It has been reported that researchers have developed a new way to detect some performance-enhancing drugs which is up to a thousand times more sensitive than current tests, and which can also cover a far longer history of detection.

Research presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society has offered evidence of a new process for detecting stimulants, steroids, alcohol and depressants in tiny concentrations, and with a far greater historical depth.

Chemists at the University of Texas in Arlington believe they have developed a method - Paired Ion Electrospray Ionisation - that builds on existing mass spectrometry techniques to identify metabolites obtained from urine samples which have previously been too small for detection.

"It makes them much more detectable," Dr Daniel Armstrong, who led the research team, said.

"We're talking about parts per trillion, sub-parts per trillion - and the amazing thing is that it is so simple.

"We listed our sensitivity versus everything we found in the literature thus far, and that's where we got this 10-1,000 times more sensitive than anything else recorded, depending on the drug you are talking about."

In the past, cheating athletes have worked on calculations of how long offending substances will remain in their body in order to avoid being caught. Armstrong claims the new method would make this much more difficult.

"With steroids, it's about two orders of magnitude, about 100 times more sensitive," he said. "We may be able to detect a steroid or something that's long-lived a couple of years after it was taken."

Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3.

Among the 900 or so athletes who competed at the weekend's USA Masters Track Indoor Championship in Boston, one was in a category all of his own. That is, Leland McPhie, a member of the 100+ age group.

This World War Two veteran, representing the Southern California Track Club, took part in four events - high jump, shot put, weight throw and superweight throw - at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center.

Four events at 100. Quite something. Actually, it was five events for McPhie, the most taxing of which was surely the Interview Round.

"I haven't been training too much," he confessed to the Boston Herald before competition got underway. For shame!!!

"Two of the events I haven't done before, but my coach wants me to do it," he added. "I'll be the only one in my age group, and I can get points for the club. I'm a team player."

The report added that McPhie had competed for San Diego State in the 1930s and was setting track records more than 70 years ago, pole vaulting with a bamboo pole with the nickname "grasshopper."

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune report, McPhie, the oldest of nine children, taught himself how to pole vault. "It was the Depression, and they didn't have money to hire coaches," he said.

In the week preceding the championships, officials in San Diego County - where the centenarian had worked for the Sheriff's Department from 1940 to 1969 - declared March 10 to be "Leland McPhie Day".

And at the end of the three-day competition involving 89 clubs, one stood proudly top of the rankings. Yes, it was McPhie's own Southern California Track Club. Ahhh.....

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, covered the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics as chief feature writer for insidethegames, having covered the previous five summer Games, and four winter Games, for The Independent. He has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, The Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. His latest book Foul Play – the Dark Arts of Cheating in Sport (Bloomsbury £12.99) is available at the insidethegames.biz shop. To follow him on Twitter click here.

Mavericks, rebels, oddballs, loners. Don't you just love them?

Most of us do. The trouble is, those in authority usually don't. Particularly those who run sport.

I confess I'm a closet fan of United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage - but only as an amusing character. Because I'm certainly no fan of UKIP's policies. Similarly London Mayor Boris Johnson. Love him to bits, though I'm no Tory. For me, dear old Bojo's skilfully-orchestrated eccentric persona outweighs his politics.

So when it comes to sport, cards on the table. I'll take the non-conformists every time, from Muhammad Ali through to Jose Mourinho via Sir Alf Ramsey, Eddie The Eagle, Eric the Eel, Gazza, Ian Botham, Maradona, Brian Clough, show jumping's V-signer Harvey Smith, taekwondo's go-it-aloner Aaron Cook and of course the daddy of all rebel-rousers, John McEnroe.

All, and many more, have helped make the sports world go round while falling foul of the Establishment at one time or another. Largely because the blazers have little understanding of what makes such idiosyncratic characters tick.

Admittedly I am not too sure about Prince Naseem Hamed or Kevin Pietersen - both a little too smugly narcissistic for my liking. But they have been supreme entertainers , though in Pietersen's case the real surprise of his now terminated England cricket career is that he was ever selected in the first place, such is the deep-seated suspicion of the "maverick" in British sport.

One resolutely off-beat character I have long admired is the former British distance runner Dave Bedford.

Dave Bedford was one of the finest distance runners Britain has ever produced ©Getty Images



He was the hairy monster of athletics whose name was on everybody's lips, not least his own. Bedford reveled in being the bearded braggart of sport, a red-socked rebel holding up two fingers to officialdom, yet filling the stadiums wherever he ran.

While he may have no Olympic medal to show for it, he was one of the finest distance runners Britain has ever produced, holding at one time or another every UK record from 2,000 to 10,000 metres, including the steeplechase. He also won a world cross-country title, running, as always, from the front.

Those were the days when EPO was just a tinkle in a chemist's test-tube. To Bedford, the only performance-enhancing substances which mattered were Guinness and gumption.

Yet nowadays respectability is the Bedford by-word. It was a masterstroke when the late Chris Brasher, co-founder of the London Marathon, hired him to organise the London Marathon, no doubt aware, aware as something of an athletic anarchist himself in his heyday, that it takes one to know one.

Bedford has been beavering away on the Marathon's behalf for the past decade-and-a-half and his selling of the event to punters, sponsors and the media has helped make it the greatest one-day fundraising event in the UK, with half a billion pounds going to charitable causes over the years.

A couple of years back, when Bedford stepped down from his full-time post as race director, I asked in insidethegames: "Why has he never received a gong? Many lesser (but less rebellious) athletes have been honoured, but not Bedford."

With the help of Dave Bedford, the London Marathon has become the greatest one-day fundraising event in the UK ©Getty Images



Well now he has, a belatedly but thoroughly deserved OBE, presented to him two weeks ago by Prince William at Buckingham Palace. One occasion when "Bootsie" was suitably suited.

A few of us who have followed his career met with him over lunch this week to celebrate his award.

He is in fine fettle after a knee replacement op last year, still lean and trim though the once-shaggy curls and Zapata moustache could do with a dollop of Grecian 2000. But his enthusiasm remains eternally youthful.

He has always said apart from having sex for the first time, running the marathon will be the most exciting thing people do in their entire lives. After spending his own lifetime in sport, he is still clearly in love with it.

As poacher-gamekeeper conversions go, his was definitely in the gold-medal class. He has not only been the international race director but also responsible for marketing and promoting the entire event. From rebel in running shoes to establishment man in a suit was a remarkable transition for someone whose battles with the blazers (as well as the 118 118 directory service who stole his hirsute trademark) were legendary, and still are.

And at 64 he hasn't quite hung up those boots. He still works part-time organising the elite division race of the race and is hopeful Mo Farah's collapse in New York won't affect his debut in London on April 13, for which the bookmakers still make him favourite.

Unfortunately, the latest news about another of sports modern mavericks who, like Bedford, has made a name as a race organiser, is not quite as upbeat. One of his Olympic contemporaries, the former gold medallist Tessa Sanderson, has lost her bitter running battle with Newham Council to keep alive the popular annual 10km event staged in the East London borough.

Olympic javelin gold medallist Tessa Sanderson's 10km run in the borough that staged London 2012's main events has hit the buffers ©Getty Images



Sanderson tells us that the race, also due to be held next again month, has had to be abandoned after six years, claiming the Council has put too many obstacles in the way. "The last straw came when they wanted to double the fee we pay them," she says.

"Dealing with them has been an absolute nightmare, with delay after delay over promised meetings. I am so saddened, both for the local community and those athletes my Foundation helps sponsor with their training and other expenses from the race profits. They will now lose out. This has cost us a lot of money."

The first British black woman to win Olympic gold - she was javelin champion at Los Angeles in 1984 - the feisty six-times Olympian, 56, has long had a fractious relationship with the Council, who have cited "significant ongoing concerns over the potential impacts, including road safety and traffic disruption" for their reluctance to give the go-ahead for the race, stating: "We are not prepared to compromise the potential safety of runners and residents or have major traffic jams in the Borough.

"Representatives of the Tessa Sanderson Foundation have once again failed to convince the Newham Safety Advisory Group that they have a safe plan for the run which would not have a significant and unacceptable impact on local residents."

An angry Sanderson disputes their take on the situation and asks: "What does this say about Olympic legacy in Newham, the Borough which hosted the 2012 Games? I don't know what their motive is other than a hidden agenda that they may want to promote their own race."

Last year's race attracted 3,000 runners with 45 different nationalities. Adds Sanderson: "Newham have been totally bloody-minded over this. I hate being beaten, but they've left us no option but to cancel what has proved a worthy event."

I agree. When you look for Olympic legacy in the Borough which made so much play about being the heartland of London 2012, it doesn't exactly hit you between the eyes.

It seems to me the problem with the silly burghers of Newham is that they have no idea how to handle someone as strong-willed as Sanderson. And like so many of the sniffily high-minded when it comes to dealing with those who challenge the system, they find it easier not to try. Which is as much a loss to society as it is to sport.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Games, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.

When planning a World Cup there are myriad areas of work to consider, from team accommodation to the design of the furry mascots. We were adamant from day one that a clean tournament was a priority and anti-doping therefore had to play a key role in our planning. Doping is a risk that we take seriously in Rugby League and we needed to ensure that all players had the opportunity to compete cleanly and that the integrity of the tournament was protected.

The three biggest risk factors we identified were human growth hormone, peptides and inadvertent positives through the use of supplements. This third factor was of particular concern given the fact that we had a number of "young" rugby league playing nations, such as the United States and Italy, making their World Cup debuts.

Eighty-three per cent of the players played domestically in either Australia or the UK, the two strongest domestic competitions in the world, and so would have been exposed to anti-doping programmes previously. The other 17 per cent of players are not professional and came from competitions where anti-doping was not an integral part of their domestic competitions. We therefore identified the need for a strong educational aspect to our anti-doping plans.

Appointing UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) as the anti-doping provider ensured that all aspects of the programme (education, testing, therapeutic use exemptions (TUE), results management) could be delivered by one agency.

Education was a strong part of the anti-doping plans put in place ©AFP/Getty Images



We worked with UKAD to customise the Win Clean education programme, making the content relevant to rugby league players and using appropriate imagery. We also worked with UKAD's National Trainers to develop two workshops that were appropriate for the nations competing; one for the more advanced nations used to competing at this level and a slightly modified workshop for the younger nations. These would be delivered within a few days of the nations arriving in the UK.

In the months leading up to the tournament the nations were provided with factsheets to distribute to players to raise awareness of some of the key areas, e.g. supplements, ahead of the tournament. Around this time we also began to engage with the team doctors to inform them of the TUE protocol and upon arrival they were asked to attend a workshop.

There was also a significant piece of work undertaken with UKAD to put in place an appropriate and proportionate result management system in the event of an Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV). We adopted the model used by the International Paralympic Committee where in the event of an ADRV, the player would be immediately provisionally suspended and an expedited hearing would be convened by the Rugby League International Federation. We wanted to ensure that any player who tested positive was dealt with quickly to uphold the integrity of the competition.

Given the ongoing Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority investigation, it was felt necessary to work with UKAD to establish a Major Event Intelligence Co-ordination Centre. Based at the RLWC2013 offices in Manchester, this facilitated intelligence sharing between UKAD, RLWC2013 and other National Anti-Doping Organisations.

Close to 200 tests were undertaken during Rugby League World Cup 2013, with results returned before each player's next game ©Getty Images



Given budget constraints it was essential that all tests were deployed effectively and this approach led to a high level of target testing through the collation and assessment of intelligence.

With regards to the testing itself, we had a balance between in and out of competition testing and used blood and urine testing. The urine samples were subjected to additional sample analysis through the use of Isotope ratio mass spectrometry and peptide testing.

Including UKAD's pre-tournament testing there were close to 200 tests undertaken. Rather than have a fixed turnaround time for each sample, the lab at King's College ensured all results were returned before the player played in his next game. This flexibility was important to uphold the integrity of the tournament but also to ensure that quick turnaround fees were not excessive.

The shadow of doping is a real threat to the success of any sporting event and by working so closely with UKAD, we were able to put a targeted, proportionate and fit for purpose programme in place.

Overall the RLWC2013's anti-doping programme was a great success. We successfully educated hundreds of players and support staff and implemented a robust testing programme that was designed to address the risks that tournament faced. All tests have now been reported and there have been no ADRVs. The next Rugby League World Cup will be jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand in 2017 and I'm sure they will build on the anti-doping programme we created.

As we have all discovered over recent weeks, there is no sport which ebbs and flows quite like curling. The momentum can shift with every shout, stone and sweep and, if there is one lesson to learn, it is that no team should get complacent when leading or abandon hope when trailing.

And that is just in the course of one end let alone an entire match.

The race for the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics can be considered rather similarly.

In the weeks and months ahead of the submission of Applicant Files by the five remaining candidates last Friday - Almaty, Beijing, Kraków, Lviv and Oslo - many factors have affected the campaign and many more will continue to do so.

First we had the months of referendum-fuelled anticipation as to who would actually step forward - with proposed bids from Munich and St. Moritz/Davos failing at the ballot box and one from Oslo scraping over the line. Then we had the official announcement of the six cities, followed by an Orientation Seminar organised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne to help them on their way. Each then attended the Games in Sochi as Official Observers as they added the finishing touches to their applications.

In that time we have seen Stockholm's unlikely bid come to an end as they withdrew in January after failing to gain Government support. We have also seen the escalation of events in Ukraine which have surely now ended any hopes of a Lviv victory.

There have been protests in Lviv as in the rest of Ukraine in recent months ©AFP



Lviv is a good place to start when analysing the five Applicants. It is amazing to think now that when this first ever Ukrainian Olympic bid was launched at the beginning of November, it was still several weeks before the decision to seek closer relations with Russian rather than with the European Union triggered the initial protests.  

Here in Sochi, Britain's Alpine ski racers have had to deal with some extremely difficult conditions on the mountain this week, but have coped incredibly well and achieved great things by any measure.

There's been so much pressure placed on a relatively young squad, not only by everyone wishing them well but by the athletes themselves. Despite this, they have still managed to deliver on the day.

A huge amount of credit has to go to them on achieving excellent results so far and having written themselves into the history books. We've waited a long time to make this transition and there are so many people behind the scenes that have believed and tirelessly worked to get the team members into a position to shine on the biggest platform within the sport, the Winter Paralympics.

It's been an emotional week for all involved, the incredible highs of winning medals, the extreme pride in other athletes surpassing expectations, to seeing the pure torment in the eyes of those crashing out or not happy with their respective runs. But, in a nutshell, that's sport and that's why we love skiing, it's character building!

Watching Jade Etherington, led by her guide Caroline Powell, win downhill silver was an incredible moment ©Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images



Sat in the media mixed zone at the bottom of the downhill course, watching Jade Etherington and her guide Caroline Powell's magnificent run in the women's visually impaired downhill taking silver was an incredible moment. When I was two feet away from them after the race whilst being interviewed by Channel 4, the two of them could barely stand still. Their excitement in winning a Paralympic medal could hardly be contained. Giving them a hug, my emotions took over, the reality of what they had just achieved and enormity of what this may mean for the future of the team as a whole really struck me.

Within minutes however, Kelly Gallagher and her guide Charlotte Evans turned up totally crushed with their DNF – and after such high hopes. It brought me back down to earth. Both teams dealt with it in different ways, Kelly putting on a brave face and Charlotte not able to hold back the tears.

As great team-mates, Kelly and Charlotte were pleased for Jade and Caroline but both still had something to prove to themselves. This didn't take long. Winning the women's visually impaired super-G the following day was a seriously impressive performance. The two athletes took Paralympic gold – the first ever for a British Winter Alpine athlete. Guide and skier were in perfect unison the whole way down and a well-deserved result following an impressive season for Kelly and Charlotte.

It was double the delight for Britain in the super-G as Kelly Gallagher (second from left) won gold and Jade Etherington (third from left) won bronze with guides Caroline Powell and Charlotte Evans ©Getty Images



That evening the whole British contingent of staff, family, friends and guests attended the medal ceremony and seeing two Union Flags flying with Jade and Caroline taking the bronze, listening to, and all screaming out, the national anthem, was a moment none of us will ever forget. We were bursting with pride!

It also brought back personal memories of my World Cup win in Sestriere 2010, the feeling of achievement after a long and difficult path to reach your goals and dreams. This was a moment for them showing if you dream big you can make it happen!

That's one thing I admire most about the spectacular performances from Mick Brennan in the very competitive class of male sitting skiers. Mick has come a long way in the last few years, dealing with a number of demons and hard times, but showing so much courage and determination to put in personal best performances on the hill and gaining a huge amount of respect from everyone that knows him.

Fifteen-year-old visually impaired skier Millie Knight is having the time of her life out here, but I can't imagine doing what she's doing at such a tender age under such demanding circumstances, amazing. Then you have sit skier Anna Turney who has put so much into the sport and skiing so well, not to be reaching the results she so deserves is a difficult time for her in this unforgiving sport.

Fifteen-year-old Mille Knight has amazed with her performances in Sochi ©Getty Images



They all have more chances to come with our other younger members Ben Sneesby and James Whitley joining them in the technical events in the men's sitting and men's standing classifications respectively. Relishing the challenge to compete on the big stage, looking to achieve personal goals and gain valuable experience moving forward to Pyeongchang 2018.

Not only have they achieved on the race hill, but just as important off as well, reaching medal targets set by Sport England in consultation with Disability Snowsports UK. These results will be a game changer for the British Disabled Ski Team and rightly so, more money will be awarded for the next cycle leading up to the next games, with youth and development athletes coming through the ranks and wanting to follow in our medallists' shoes.

These results will bring Alpine skiing in line with many of our successful summer sports where they have access to a greater area of performance enhancing facilities and services. I have a great gut feeling that things are bright for the team and am sure of a successful long-term future within the sport, showing many Alpine nations how it's done – GB style.

Sean Rose is a sit ski racer, double Winter Paralympian, World Cup gold medallist in downhill and Winter X Games medallist. Sean is currently in Sochi with Channel 4 commenting on the Alpine skiing.

A funny thing happened in Sopot at the weekend. Two high jumpers - Kamila Licwinko of the host nation Poland and Maria Kuchina chose to share the gold medal at the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Indoor Championships after finishing on 2.00 metres with identical records of failure.

Such a decision was, of course, their right. IAAF Rule 181- 8d states that in such a situation, athletes in the high jump and pole vault have the choice of doing this or, if not in full agreement, proceeding to a jump-off where all involved attempt the next height up, and then, if the medals are still not decided, working back down the heights to resolve the issue.

It might have been different - as was the case in Gothenburg last year when, at the European Indoor Championships, pole vaulters Anna Rogowska, the Polish world champion of 2009, and Britain's Holly Bleasdale found themselves in an identical situation and the Briton elected to press on with a jump-off she eventually won.

But on this occasion, as Licwinko explained, there was no jump-off. "I talked to Kuchina and we agreed that we stand on the podium together," Licwinko said. "I wasn't sure if it's according to IAAF rules but it turned out there's a chance. The chief referee told me that it's possible and we both have gold.

"It was me who asked the Russian jumper for her opinion and she admitted she didn't want to jump any more. I was out of power as well, I was really exhausted and on top of that I twisted off my ankle a little bit during the first jump so there was no point to take the risk. If the Russian wanted to continue I would take the challenge."

Kamila Licwinko en route to a shared gold in the high jump at the Sopot 2014 IAAF World Indoor Championships ©AFP/Getty Images

As it was, the result in the Ergo Arena was double joy as both athletes paraded around the blue track in glee, brandishing their national flags over their shoulders. The host nation in particular was delighted with the first gold from a Polish woman at the World Indoors since it got officially underway in 1987. Although they subsequently lost a bronze in the men's 800 metres when Marcin Lewandowski was disqualified for stepping inside the track, the silvers won by Lewandowski's friend and team-mate Adam Kszczot and in the women's 800m by Angelika Cichocka earned them a respectable sixth place in the medals table. Tick that box.

On such statistics can rest initiatives to bring further sporting events to Poland - which is bidding to hold the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Kraków - something the Minister for Sport and Tourism, Andrzej Biernat, noted when he spoke at the Arena on Sunday.

Polish celebrations after the men's 800m - but a disqualification ruled out the bronze of Marcin Lewandowski (left), leaving only the silver won by Adam Kszczot ©Getty Images

"The World Indoors in Sopot has been prepared perfectly. The venue is perfect. The charm of the city itself the seaside resort just adds to the impression. The authorities of the city have risen to the occasion as they always have," said the Minister. "We showed the international community that we know how to run big sport events. And all the important visitors share this opinion in informal talks. They are all delighted and assure us that it is the first World Championships with such a pleasant ambiance.

"I'm a big fan of track and field and I hope event like this can boost this sport development in Poland. Each medal creates a role model for young people.

"The experience is particularly important for us with the Volleyball World Championships to be held in Poland and with us applying to host Winter Olympics."

As Jurgen Grobler, Britain's hugely successful head rowing coach, told insidethegames last month: "I always think the other medals are looking a bit better if you have also top medals." He adds: "If you have a collection of non-winning medals it is not the same. It is important to have at least one gold medal."

Britain's chief rowing coach Jurgen Grobler has strong views on the importance of having at least one gold medal in a championship collection ©Getty Images

So the gold was particularly valuable to a host nation which had committed so much time and money to bring the most recent edition of these Championships to an Arena built symbolically on the boundary of Gdansk and Sopot and which will soon play host to Tina Turner - whose best known song, Simply The Best, celebrates clarity rather than parity when it comes to being top dog.

Given the current crisis in Ukraine, there was, too, a welcome political echo in a decision jointly reached by a Russian athlete and one from a country very obviously championing the cause of Ukraine's new Government in Europe.

Around the Ergo Arena, many spectators wore blue and yellow stickers offering Polish support for the cause of a neighbour whose path to independence from the old Soviet Union has had such similarities with their own.

"Solidarnosc z Ukraina" the stickers read, with the names of three supportive Polish cities - "Gdansk Sopot Gdynia" – at the bottom.

To try and keep politics and sport apart is a hopeless task indeed; but it is good to see sport triumphing over politics.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, covered the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics as chief feature writer for insidethegames, having covered the previous five summer Games, and four winter Games, for The Independent. He has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, The Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. His latest book Foul Play – the Dark Arts of Cheating in Sport (Bloomsbury £12.99) is available at the insidethegames.biz shop. To follow him on Twitter click here.

Hot on the heels of Robin Kietlinski's book on Japanese sportswomen (read about it here), another account of female Olympic pioneers has reached me.

The Peerless Four* follows a Canadian women's athletics team on their way to the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam, the first Games to include track and field events, just five of them, for women.

Victoria Patterson's novel is perceptive and well-written: the maple leaf on the front of one athlete's jersey is likened, for example, to "a large bloody handprint".

The book makes telling points about the hollowness of sporting victories once their authors are obliged to exit the comforting simplicity of the competitive bubble and how, for all the fuss made about supposed landmarks on the path to gender equality such as Amsterdam's athletics programme, the bigger picture saw women still floundering for fulfilment in a world where men made all the rules.

As the author puts it at one point, we, men and women, "play sports and buck against our insignificance".

Most of all, it introduces us to a character - Mel, the team's chaperone and narrator of the bulk of the text - who lives in the memory for her carefully nuanced contradictions: her abnegation and wilfulness; her strength and insecurity; in a word, her humanity.

But - and, for me, a journalist who spends much of his life immersed in the cold, hard facts of Olympic competition - it is a big 'but', the book's impact was diluted by the liberties Patterson takes with the factual record.

Lina Radke of Germany won the first Olympic women's 800 metres at Amsterdam 1928
©Getty Images



On the one hand, she weaves in details that are clearly carefully researched: the "grand stadium" was a swamp filled with sand; two of the six women's 100 metres finalists were disqualified for false starts.

On the other, one of the most carefully-drawn characters, Farmer, wins gold in the women's javelin competition; yet there was no women's javelin event in Amsterdam, only the discus, won by Halina Konopacka of Poland with a throw of 39.62 metres, a world record.

Yes, invention is the fiction-writer's stock-in-trade, but I can't really fathom why she does this, unless to include the delicious detail that, on the ship crossing the Atlantic, "the javelin throwers used javelins with ropes attached and threw them out to sea, dragging them back".

The author also ends the book with a chapter, Before the Peerless Four, comprising a long list of women's sporting achievements from 776 BC onwards, that comes across as an attempt to anchor her fictionalised account of 1928 and all that in reality.

The names used for the athlete-characters are not those of the women who won two gold medals, a silver and a bronze in the five track and field events for Canada.

But there do seem to be parallels: Florence Smith appears in the book; Ethel Smith competed at Amsterdam.

Most strikingly, Ginger Hadley, the character who wins the high jump - in 10 jumps - in Patterson's book does seem to a considerable extent modelled on Ethel Catherwood, the actual gold medallist, from her physical beauty to her Saskatchewan roots.

An image of Catherwood adorns the dust-jacket.

Ginger Hadley, the character who wins the high jump, seems to be modelled on actual gold medallist Ethel Catherwood ©Getty Images



It wasn't just the Canadian women who did well in Amsterdam; a Canadian sprinter called Percy Williams achieved the 100m-200m double.

But here too Patterson tinkers with the true story, though this time I think I can see why she does it.

A character called Hugh Williams appears in the book; he is a sprinter and does win the sprint double.

"Now Canada and the world loved him," the book tells us, "but he did not love them. He didn't love to run. He didn't even like it. His father left when he was a baby, his coach was a dictator, and his mother was also a dictator, and he won, because that's the way it works sometimes."

Very well, but as recounted in a 1935 letter from Farmer to the narrator that allows the author to give another layer of perspective to the 'events' of seven years earlier, Hugh Williams met a sad end.

"Hugh Williams took his life with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his heart," the letter reads. "He shot his heart out, Mel. No suicide note, but he used that gun that they gave him as a prize for his Olympic victories - remember that big silver gun the mayor presented to him at that other ceremony after that small one? - which to me IS his note."

This passage had me racing to my Canadian Encyclopedia fearing for the real Percy Williams and wondering whether despair had engulfed him like his fictional counterpart.

Well, the answer appears to be yes, with most details, which I actually located on Wikipedia, seemingly as in Farmer's letter - except two: Williams is said to have shot himself in the head; and his death occurred in 1982, when he was 74.

Canadian sprinter Percy Williams, right, is said to have taken his own life in 1982
©Getty Images



So: while not everyone will react like me, my health warning, if you are tempted to read the book, would be - don't expect it to be a true factual record with added psychology and social comment.

If you are looking for a sporting novel that throws an interesting light on the true nature of athletic success and women's emancipation, then you will find much to satisfy you.

*The Peerless Four by Victoria Patterson, published by Counterpoint Press, price $23 (£13/€16).

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 World Cup and London 2012. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed here.

They scrap like wildcats in an octagonal metal cage, kicking, punching and jumping all over each other to inflict the sort of bodily harm normally the result of back alley muggings. It is called UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), a brutal no-holds-barred amalgam of martial arts and mayhem that has become something of a cult worldwide. Now this Cage Rage reckons it has mainstream boxing on the ropes.

Ultimate Fighting is all hands and knees with plenty of boomps-a-daisy. Gouging, biting, butting and punching to the groin with the four ounce fingerless gloves are not only permitted but positively encouraged. You can even hit a man when he's down. Ground and pound, they call it.

The moguls of the mixed martial arts business were in London last week claiming that it is now second only to football as a global attraction, hugely followed in 145 countries covering every continent, beamed into almost a billion homes via TV, with 50 million hits a week on YouTube-and regularly filling the world's biggest arenas to capacity.

Which if it is all true means it surely won't be long before UFC is pounding on the doors of the International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach at Lausanne's Chateau de Vidy HQ, demanding entrance to the five-ringed circus. Well good luck with that.

UFC may attract as an occasion, but surely holds no lingering passion for those who prefer sport in its more traditional form ©Getty Images



Personally I have as much belief in UFC as I do UFOs. It may attract as an occasional glitzy night out, like another US import grid iron football, but surely holds no lingering passion for the majority who prefer their sport in a more traditional form.

Those behind this "phenomenon" cite last Saturday night's event at London's O2, for which all 18,000 tickets went within four hours, as how big it is becoming here. Beat that, they said.

Well, boxing did just that.

Fight game impresario Eddie Hearn swiftly counter-punched when 60,000 tickets, ranging from £30 ($49/€35) to £1,500 ($2,494/€1,798) VIP packages, for the return world super-middleweight title fight between Carl Froch and George Groves at Wembley Stadium on May 31, went within an  hour of being put on sale on Monday - a post-war record for a big fight in  Britain. Hearn is now seeking permission to increase the capacity to 80,000, and you can bet there will be plenty of action on eBay by the end of the week.

Moreover, this is not just promotional hype. Tickets went on sale at noon and friends who tried to buy tickets just after 1pm found there were none left.

We know from the 2012 Olympics that when the public fancies an event, the tickets cannot be printed fast enough, whatever the cost.

Carl Froch (left) and George Groves will get back in the ring for a highly anticipated rematch at Wembley Stadium in May ©Getty Images



But nothing out-sells really big fights. Last Saturday in Las Vegas it took only 10 minutes for 12,000 tickets valued at $12 million (£7.2 million/€8.6 million) to sell for the Floyd Mayweather versus Marcos Maidana fight on May 3. The cheapest tickets are $300 (£180/€216) compared to £30 ($49/€35) for the Froch–Groves fight, which helps explain the difference in revenue.

The all-British bash will also be screened live via Sky Box Office, with revenue expected to exceed £20 million ($33.2 million/€23.9 million).

It is a contest that has sold itself.

Champion Froch – knocked down, battered and trailing on points – stopped Groves in highly controversial circumstances in the ninth round last November.

The intervention by experienced British referee Howard Foster seemed hasty and ill-judged, and was subsequently deemed "improper" by the US-based International Boxing Federation Federation (IBF) one of the two sanctioning bodies, who in a rare judgment upheld Groves' appeal and ordered a re-match.

A study in Scotland produced in recent weeks has found how coaches can play an important role in influencing the choices of athletes for or against doping in sport. 

The study, commissioned by the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) and undertaken at the University of Stirling, found that Scotland's excellent anti-doping record is heavily linked to coaches' attitudes, but also found they do not have as much influence as perhaps they should.

It certainly raises an interesting point regarding both the influences an athlete faces regarding doping and the role of a coach in professional sport today.

To a young athlete at least, the role and influence of a coach is fairly obvious. A coach is a figure of authority, someone you look up to and consider a hub of information and expertise on that given sport. They do not just help you develop as an athlete but as a person as well and in many cases play a role rather like a second mother or father-like figure.

So if bad habits are introduced at this young stage - as they were, for example, in the state sponsored East German system of the Cold War era - it seems unlikely that an aspiring sportsman is going to have the knowledge, experience or foresight to resist temptation.

An interesting comparison is if I, as a young journalist starting out my career at insidethegames last year, had entered an environment where phone hacking is rife and is practised and encouraged by all the senior writers and editors who I look up to, how would I have reacted? Especially if I was convinced that it was both morally and legally acceptable?

The July before last, I was lucky enough to visit the Lee Valley White Water Centre as it played host to an exciting Olympic canoe slalom competition.

I was back in London's northern suburbs last week as the centre reopened for a 2014 season that includes three days of World Cup action, following completion of a £6.3 million post-Olympic development project.

Now incorporating GB Canoeing's slalom national performance centre, it is a Rolls-Royce facility and no mistake, described by Albert Woods, the British Canoe Union chairman, as "the best slalom venue in the world".

The elite British canoeists who turned out for the reopening are plainly highly appreciative and thrilled to bits.

London 2012 silver medallist Richard Hounslow said the centre was being "future-proofed" and predicted that GB Canoeing would be there for years to come.

Given that it also affords the opportunity for families in the densely-populated south-east of England to enjoy thrilling white-water rafting rides without breaking the bank and may attract talented youngsters into the sport, this looks like an exciting example of Olympic legacy in action. Right?

The Lee Valley White Water Centre does, up to a point, look like an exciting example of Olympic legacy in action ©Getty Images



Well, up to a point. I do think the London 2012 project has been extremely well thought-through and executed.

As such, it probably represents as good an example of white-water legacy planning as we are ever likely to see.

But I still wonder about the wisdom of an Olympic factory that all but decrees that one of these expensive marvels of modern engineering should be erected somewhere in the world every four years.

Unlike many Olympic sports, that can take place in multi-purpose venues such as exhibition centres, which are relatively cheap to build and easy to find post-Games uses for, a canoe slalom course is extremely specialised.

It is also energy-intensive: as a man from the Atkins engineering and design consultancy once explained to me, it requires 15 cubic metres a second of water to be pumped through the course.

That is like 60 bath-fulls every second of an event, which must make for substantial running costs.

Water is not something the course is lacking, needing plenty to keep it ticking over ©Getty Images



Now London's dense, affluent population means that the Lee Valley centre can probably count on high demand.

But not every Olympic host will come with such a promising post-Games market to tap; it is hard to imagine that Rio will, for example, though Tokyo may be better placed.

Even London would be hard-pressed to make such a facility pay, at least in its current format incorporating the elite performance centre, if the capital cost of building it had to be financed and repaid.

Shaun Dawson, chief executive of the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, which owns and runs the new centre, was kind enough to walk me through the business plan when we found a quiet corner.

The income target is put at £2.5 million ($4.1 million/€3 million) a year, after a couple of seasons getting up to speed, which should be enough to allow a small surplus.

He says the income in 2013, even before the new development was finished, was around £1.4 million ($2.3 million/€1.6 million), split approximately 70:30 between the general public and the corporate sector.

Based on this, and the superb quality of the development, that £2.5 million figure looks eminently attainable.

Can such facilities in other Olympic host citites like Beijing really make them financially viable post-Games? ©Getty Images



Incidentally, in the way of these things, Dawson says the centre has discovered an unexpected supplementary market in the emergency services, who appreciate Lee Valley as a training venue partly because they know the water is clean.

The centre's business planners, however, don't have to worry about repaying the capital cost of constructing the centre, which now stands at some £37 million ($61 million/€44 million).

Imagine if, instead of being anted up mainly by a variety of public bodies, this money had had to be borrowed at, say, five per cent a year and repaid over, say, 20 years.

According to my back-of-envelope arithmetic, the year one financing cost would have been £3.7 million ($6.1 million/€4.4 million), or comfortably more than expected annual income even when the centre is up to full speed.

One way of justifying this gift to canoeing from a grateful nation is to say that it was a small part of the investment in bringing the Olympic and Paralympic Games to Britain and that the Games put the country in the global spotlight in a very positive way, generating incalculable millions in spin-off benefits.

I'd largely go along with that.

However, the impact of the Games would have been just as great with or without slalom canoeing.

In the case of Lee Valley, I don't think this is an issue since, if you are prepared to swallow the capital cost, the centre will most probably be able to, as the money men say, "wash its face": this looks very unlikely to become known as the White Elephant off junction 25 of the M25 motorway.

But what about Athens, or Rio, or even Beijing? Would the white-water facilities in these Olympic cities be able to present similarly convincing plans to cover their operating costs over an extended period while enriching the lives of a significant cross-section of the local populations?

This is why, though I much enjoy watching it, I have come to wonder more if slalom canoeing should really be part of the Olympic Games than, say, taekwondo or archery, which do not – or should not – leave behind costly and specialised facilities in places where they are not necessarily needed.

Of course, development of a capability to manufacture portable canoe slalom courses would address this issue.

Is such a concept feasible? Does such a thing already exist?

Given the mounting pressure on mega-event organisers to demonstrate a responsible attitude towards long-term legacy and the sensible use of resources, it may be an idea whose time has come.

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 World Cup and London 2012. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed here.