While professional football in the UK has been dogged by rumours of underhand payments and corruption for some time, surely our national game, the game we created, cannot be corrupt?

Sad news hit the headlines today with the arrest of Birmingham duo Karren Brady and David Sullivan who have both been taken in for questioning about alleged false accounting and corruption. Surely it cannot be that despite the millions of pounds on offer in the professional game, players, managers and owners still want more?

We all hope that the latest allegations are proved unfounded but slowly it seems that the Police are getting closer and closer to an alleged underground network where payments are passed in return for players signing for clubs, etc. While the serious fraud office have tried and failed to nail the suspected culprits in the past, this latest case seems to have been ongoing for some time with other suspects arrested some weeks ago in connection with the same investigation.

It begs the question that if our national sport can in anyway be corrupt, what about other areas of life and business. We have seen mounting criticism of the massive expense allowance which has been afforded to MPs without the need to even get a receipt! We have seen the Irish Premier resign after questions regarding his personal finance and alleged illegal payments, and Conrad Black put behind bars for what was proven to be a long sustained case of fraudulent use of business assets.

The crazy thing about these recent cases of alleged fraud and corruption is the fact that it seems to surround people who have money, people who know where their next meal is coming from. As the UK economy stumbles towards a possible recession we are seeing real people struggling to pay mortgages, cast out onto the street while others seemingly continue to stick their noses into the corporate money trough.

What on earth is the world coming to?