BOSSES MUST SEE THE LIGHT

THE final item on a BBC bulletin brought news that 17-year-old yachtsman Mike Perham had completed his round-the-world voyage.

Now, I'm just waiting for the follow-up. When it transpires the young scamp dropped an outboard motor into the drink as soon as he was over the horizon. Or that he's actually only done a few laps of the Isle of Wight.

Because the previous three items in that bulletin were as follows.

Rugby's Bloodgate, football's Eduardo, snooker's world No 2 questioned - and, it must be stressed, released without charge - in a betting probe.

Cheating has always been a running sore in sport. Even the great and the good have been caught red-handed or at least implicated. Diego Maradona, of course. Any number of athletes you care to mention, starting with Ben Johnson.

In one instance, doubts were even cast about the integrity of Michael Atherton - Manchester Grammar School, Downing College, Cambridge, England captain, esteemed cricket correspondent of The Times, no less - when he was filmed rubbing dirt into a ball.

And what about Muhammad Ali? On Friday, he had a reunion with Henry Cooper, who knocked him to the canvas in the dying seconds of the fourth-round during their fight at Wembley in 1963.

When Ali wandered dazed to his corner, his trainer Angelo Dundee apparently noticed a small tear in a glove. Thanks to some sly Dundee fingerwork, the small tear became a big tear, the referee was called over, allowing Ali extra time to recover.

He cut Cooper to ribbons in the next. "I'm not bitter," says Cooper. "I hope my trainer would have done the same for me in similar circumstances."

Maybe. But in most people's books, it was still cheating. Not as heinous an example as that provided by another boxing trainer. A chap called Panama Lewis, who removed two ounces of padding from his fighter's gloves and also soaked Luis Resto's hand-wraps in plaster of paris before the Puerto Rican's contest with outstanding 21-year-old welterweight prospect Billy Collins Jr in June, 1983.

The injuries Resto inflicted on Collins were savage and career-ending. Nine months later, he died in a car crash. His family believe it was suicide.

The case of Collins Jr is the very tragic, very extreme end of the scale. But cheating always has a victim.

The hideous Harlequins ruse did not pay off and the intended victims, Leinster, were reprieved. But the victim has become the game itself, stripped of its cloak of honour.

But at least rugby recognised the real culprit. Dean Richards, the coach on whose watch this despicable episode was played out.

For being the architect of a grotesque con, Richards has been banned for three years.

But even if he had not been the brains behind the scam, Richards would have been culpable. Coaches, managers, call them what you like, have a duty to ensure their team, their club, behaves in a proper manner. We are actively campaigning to stamp out ugly dissent in football.

The FA have their Respect programme, the Premier League a Get On With The Game initiative.

But the ultimate power to crush bad behaviour, to stamp out cheating lies with the managers.

Depressing

It lies with the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson, with Rafa Benitez, with Carlo Ancelotti, with Arsene Wenger.

Which is why the Frenchman's reaction to the Eduardo incident against Celtic was a touch depressing.

He makes several good points about the validity of a UEFA charge against the Croat - not least the suggestion it has been influenced by Scottish power within the European governing body.

But whatever the rights and wrongs of a charge, from where most people were sitting, Eduardo's tumble looked like a dive. Simple as that.

And to suggest he might have been trying to avoid a collision in the wake of his serious injury is almost laughable. We credit Wenger with intelligence, he insults ours.

Defend Eduardo if you must. Resist what you think is a UEFA witch hunt. But also make it clear that any Arsenal player who dives will be dealt with severely by the club. Never mind a governing body.

In the same way that Fergie should be telling Wayne Rooney he will not tolerate verbal intimidation of refs.

Who stamped out dissent from the great Nottingham Forest side? Not the FA, not the Football League. Brian Clough.

Stricter laws and tougher punishments from governing bodies are welcome. Positively encouraged.

But the most powerful tools for change rest in the hands of the people who - on a daily, even hourly basis - shape the way footballers, indeed any sportsmen or women, behave.

And those people are the managers, the coaches, the bosses. They have the responsibility to make sure the running sore of cheating does not become a cancer.

Now get the News of World print edition for more from Andy Dunn

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