Is rugby union MORE corrupt than football ?

As Thaksin Shinawatra (the former Thai PM facing multiple charges of corruption) agrees to ditch Manchester City to a company based in the United Arab Emirates and face prosecution back home, rugby union fans haul out their calculators to tally up allegations of corruption in their sport. 

Figuring out which ball sport has deeper back pockets leads football and rugby union fans down a sinister hall of shame.

Within rugby union, internet forums are claiming there is corruption and bribery within the 2015 World Cup bid, with four million Australian dollars allegedly having been been tracked to South Africa's mysterious withdrawal from the 2015 bid. Thus the race is truly on to find a winner/loser in this 'Derby of Deceit' between football and rugby union.

World Cup bids, whether for the round or oval ball, have traditionally highlighted the 'dark side' of sport and I therefore think first prize this year should go to rugby union because when it comes to being financially 'swift-footed', the sport outdodges football like Brian Habana going around Tony Crouch.

OK, Chelsea have Roman Abramovich and Manchester City have Shinawatra but they are bulldogs in comparison to rugby union's butterflies of shadiness.

With the finesse of butterflies flying under the rugby-union radar, its sinister back office of puppet-masters wields control unparralleled by ANY sport.  Take the 2015 Rugby World Cup as a for instance - South Africa, front-runners in the bid between Japan, England, South Africa and Australia, suddenly yank their own bid handbrake before two SARFU board voting members are fingered with a whole load of lolly from an Aussie telecommunications group.

It's obvious the $185 billion financial success of the RWC in France provides enough incentive 'to grease' a bid.

Although I'm not a football fan, this Thai-guy Shinawatra does a grand job for those favouring football as winners of the 'Derby of Deceit'.

What has he done? A criminal in his own country, he raised his profile in Britain, where he is now applying for political asylum, laundering his ill-gotten gains, he enhanced his populist appeal in Thailand, where the English Premier League is closely followed by millions of fans and looks set to emerge from (and thanks to) football, metamorphosised.

The Premier League board adoptes the attitude that until or unless the allegations of corruption and other abuses are proven against Thaksin, he is as welcome as any investor from Abu Dhabi to Moscow. And why wouldn't they with an extra one-billion viewship?

Nonetheless, as a Springbok rugby union fan, my vote goes to rugby union as this year's winners of the 'Derby of Deceit'. After football diddled South Africa out of the 2006 World Cup hosting (thanks to Charles Dempsey of New Zealand), this 2015 pre-emptive Rugby World Cup bid jinx is worth $200 billion.  Enough to secure rugby this year's trophy.

Has anyone wondered about how New Zealand steered their 2011 RWC bid so silently and smoothly ?