November's Observer Sport Monthly neats distills the growing language of sporting immorality which increasingly features in the comments of some participants, coaches, pundits and sport administrators.

With nine Premier League players sent off last weekend and the Autumn Rugby internationals about to begin, the next few weeks will undoubtedly see the media littered with the language of excuses for actions that tread the thin line between the acceptable and unacceptable in professional sport.

Contemporary sport may be facing new manifestations of gamesmanship, yet the underlying causes of the uglyness on display can be attributed to the heady cocktail of gross commercialization, winner takes all mentality and the impatient fan, further stoked further by rampant testosterone. The real worry however, is that many of those engaged in the acts of dishonesty quickly gain iconic status and become role models for a new generation of sportsmen/women.their supporters and those keen to imitate their actions in the play ground as well as on the playing field