The Ethics of Sport – a proposed new degree programme?

There is an entire subject area devoted to sport in University education these days. Sport psychology, commercial and marketing of sports management and events, sport in relation to health, sport and celebrity, sport as an expression of cultural values and social norms, even a spirituality of sport.

Is there a course somewhere, even a wee certificate or diploma, on the ethics of sport? You know, even a foundation module on why cheating is wrong. Or a more advanced one on why doing your best is good enough, but enhancing performance with banned substances is not good enough. And maybe an honours course on the way money influences loyalty, challenges integrity, and tempts towards a greed more powerful than the valid motivation to excel.

I've no idea what the explanation is of the events surrounding the world number one snooker player John Higgins, and the allegations of bribery apparently captured on camera by undercover reporters. I do know that there is now so much money in sport that it attracts malign influences from political pressures, to media manufactured scandals to the presence and interests of organised crime. And the media which thrives on celebrity, scandal, gossip both benign and malicious, has its own code of practice which might struggle to be described as an ethic of journalism – more a set of guidelines that shows where the baleful and sordid crosses the line into the territory of litigation, libel, and legally enforced apology.

Quite apart from the mess snooker finds itself in on the weekend of its showpiece world final, there is an undoubted problem in professional sport. Too much money and too few responsible role models; too much emphasis on excellence of performance sustained and improved, and not enough on moral maturity and social responsibility. The gym in our culture bears little relation to the gymnasium of the good life, the training of mind, motive and conscience to ensure that whatever else we excel at, we can demonstrate a capacity for fairness, appreciation of the skills of others, a balance between self-confidence in our ability and arrogant admiration of our own brilliance.

I have a friend who has spent a lifetime in sport, managing and coaching young lives, pouring into his sport both the experience and skills that help players grow, and the instillation of values, goals and character formation that enables players to see beyond the game, and to prepare for the much more important performance of a life well lived. He is of course in a minority; but perhaps his success is in the number of ex-players whose contribution to our communities goes well beyond their ability in a game, a sport, an industry. At its best, sport can integrate those drives that enable us to compete fairly, to strive for excellence, to value the other as person, to acknowledge good achievements whether ours or not, and to recognise that with success comes responsibility.

The irony is that for sport to survive it needs finance. Some sports are awash with money, even if most of it is borrowed under burdens of debt that at some point will crush its bearers. To handle money honestly, to recognise when money is tainted, to learn to walk away from money when the cost is a mortgaged conscience, to live wisely as a rich person, is not an economic problem. It's an ethical one. Wonder which University will be the first to offer a course on sporting ethics? Or is there one out there already but with too few recruits?