Racism in sport is as old as the hills but, somehow, when it's so recent and when both victims and perpetrators are known, it’s all the more chilling. As the tabloids got to work on cricketer Azeem Rafiq, two things became clear: whistleblowing is not easy and heroes often have feet of clay. Perceptions of cricket as afternoon tea in the pavilion, the sound of leather on willow and the quintessential English notion of fair play has, in the last few weeks, been exposed as a game riven with racism. So we invited writer and broadcaster Peter Oborne to discuss how behaviour both on and off the pitch is definitely “not cricket.”
Manchester United is one of the biggest brands on the planet. It could be yours for a mere five billion pounds as long as you're a fit and proper person – although the definition of just what constitutes “fit and proper” is currently rather elastic. In more innocent days, Michael Knighton was not just the chairman and owner of Manchester United: he could play “keepie uppie” and lash the ball into the back of the net as a former footballer himself. So, as the NY stock exchange shakes and waits anxiously for news from Old Trafford, we invited him to join Sputnik to discuss all things red!
