Since its inception in 1954 it has been hard to take the BBC Sports Personality of the Year seriously because of the unabashed cronyism that accompanies it. Conversely, if you love sport and treat the evening as a sporting caricature it can be great fun!
To say that this titular award is a fix is harsh but to say that it has been judged by a fair public vote is also untrue! The programme is corrupt in the same way the Eurovision Song Contest is. Evidence of bias is obvious where some sports are clearly marginalised. Sport comes second to corporate hospitality and show business whilst words and phrases like junkets, old boys network and expense accounts readily abound!
Initially the top 10 are supposedly decided by a selection of leading newspapers and magazine sport editors who submit their nominations each year. When asking the BBC who these arbitrators were they refused to give the names until after the 10 had been chosen. In turn these nominations are excessively loaded to a cosy middle class club who select as if it were a popularity contest neither reflecting nor revealing the true sporting personality of that year.
Proof is very easy to find, for example, in the 56 years that it has been running there have been only three black winners (5%). There have been 45 English winners (over 80%) with just nine wins from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland (16%) put together. Inexplicably, given the remit of the vote, two winners were from Republic of Ireland and Canada (4%).
