With recent incidents of spot fixing and match fixing coming to light, can we still trust the sport we all go to watch?

That’s the question that’s been rattling around in my mind over the past few days and I’m sure I’m not alone in that.

I’ve got to stress that everyone is innocent until proven guilty and as yet, no one that’s been arrested have been charged with any offence, but it seems reasonably certain that English football will be the next country to be tarnished by those trying to make a quick buck off the back of this beautiful game.

The evidence seems reasonably damning and upon first inspection, I am concerned that football’s credibility will come into question.

As someone that has gone along and watched football for about the last thirty five years, I’ve always gone with the belief that I’m watching a good old honest game between two sides that want to win.

But has that always been the case? I’m now beginning to look back at games I’ve seen with a different viewpoint. At the time, I’ve thought to myself that some players have just been plain useless, but was that really what was happening?

Were they deliberately giving the ball away, getting booked or even scoring own goals for their own financial gain?

I guess we will never know the answers to most of the questions, but it won’t stop me looking back with suspicion.

One of the biggest dangers the game faces, and so do other sports, is of fans stop going to games as they stop believing what they are seeing is true. The actions of a few could spoil it for the majority.

With so much money sloshing around in some sports, but not filtering down to the lower levels, is it only natural that when presented with the chance of making a few quid, that some people give into temptation?

How would the rest of us react when given the chance to make a year’s worth of money, just for getting booked or to take a dive?

I’d like to think I’d be able to resist, but how do any of us really know what we’d do until we were in that position?

What concerns me most, is what example will be made of anyone if they are found guilty. Surely it is only right that players are banned for life if they are found to be cheating the game.

Managers could well have lost their jobs off the back of some actions. Get booked or sent off, find yourself suspended and then not able to play, your team lose and you get relegated by the odd point. That’s how close the margins could well be.

Gambling and sport have gone hand in hand for as many years as I care to remember and speaking with former West Ham United legend Julian Dicks the other week, it is clear a lot of players have had addictions for many years.

He wouldn’t tolerate it then and was known to have spoken up against it whilst he was still playing, but the culture is there to put a few quid on a game, or another sport.

With footballers at the top of the game paid obscene amounts of money, is it any wonder some get lured into gambling?

There’s no real concern to someone who is earning £50,000 a week to lose ten grand here or there, but what example are they setting to the next generation coming through?

Fast cars, flashy watches and big houses. That’s what it’s all about for some of those coming into the game, but the reality is a lot different with most never really making it and after a few years being a “pro”, they are dealt the harsh realities of life and end up doing a proper job like the rest of us.

Now is the time for the whole of sport to stand up and make a stand against anything that taints what we all go to love to go and watch. If not, I fear for the future.