Two sides of football were revealed over the last few days.

The bad side, I’m afraid, was no surprise and the release, over the weekend, of the findings of the US-led investigation into the sport’s ruling body, Fifa, merely confirmed what anybody involved or with an interest in football must have known or suspected for years.

Any doubt about Fifa’s depravity and corruption was surely removed when the football-poor but astronomically rich Middle Eastern state of Qatar was awarded the right to host the 2022 world cup.

At the highest echelons the game is as putrid as a festering sore and the revelation that millions of pounds, destined for promoting the game in the world’s poorer areas, was channelled into the private bank accounts of top officials is sickening. We can only hope that those found guilty receive the punishments their repugnant behaviour merits.

The good side was highlighted by a story from Sunderland Football Club. A couple of months ago the club were in serious danger of relegation from the top flight of English football and the board of directors took the gamble of appointing 67 year old Dutchman Dick Advocaat, a man with no experience of the English game. His brief was simple, win as many of the remaining few games as possible and keep the club in the Premier League and we will pay you a nice bonus.

He duly delivered, the club stayed up and the board asked him to stay on and manage full time. Mr Advocaat declined saying his intention was always to retire this year and spend some time with his wife and family. However, after much pleading and petitioning by club officials and fans, he changed his mind and signed a one year contract.

The fans were delighted and some of them started an online appeal to raise money for a large bouquet of flowers to be sent to the new manager’s wife. Within a very short space of time the appeal reached over £2000 (that’s an awful lot of flowers!) so the organisers decided that £150 would be spent on the bouquet for Mrs Advocaat and the rest would go to charity.

There’s still some life in “The Beautiful Game”.