1. Melbourne Storm Salary Cap Scandal 2010
The biggest rugby league scandal since the Super League war broke on April 22, 2010. Melbourne Storm, the team who had won two grand finals and three minor premierships were stripped off those titles after it was discovered the club had effectively been keeping two sets of books and paying their star players over the limits of the NRL salary cap. The final count revealed Melbourne were in breach of the cap by a whopping $3.17 million over five years.
Tiger Woods ... he cheated, he had affairs.
Source: AP
Tiger Woods was seemingly untouchable: the best golfer the world had seen, married to a model, two beautiful children, and the world at his feet. But, on November 27, 2009 at 2.30am that all changed - Woods crashed his car at his home in Orlando and from there the media spotlight uncovered a broken man and marriage. In the coming weeks over a dozen women came forward accusing Woods of having had affairs with them. Finally on December 11, 2009 Woods released a statement, admitting to infidelity and announcing an indefinite break from professional golf. It is reported that Woods slept with around 120 women over the course of his infidelity and that the scandal has cost the golfer around $128million in lost sponsorship deals and his divorce settlement.
3. Ben Cousins Drug Scandal
There have been few bigger names in the AFL over the past 15 years. And nobody has fallen further than the West Coast and Richmond superstar. His Brownlow Medal, All Australian honours and premiership was all but forgotten as a drug addiction surfaced and brought one of the great careers to its knees. On several occasions he was fined or sanctioned by the West Coast Eagles, culminating in his contract's termination in October, 2007, and banned for one year by the AFL a month later. Cousins was cleared to return to football in 2009 was drafted by Richmond in 2008. He retired at the end of 2010.
4. Bulldogs Salary Scandal 2002
In August 2002, Canterbury Bulldogs led the NRL competition with three rounds to go, before revelations came that they had rorted the salary cap by more than A$1m (£350,000). The Dogs were stripped of 37 competition points and received the wooden spoon after it was revealed the club’s board had set up an elaborate system to pay its best players additional sums on top of their official salaries.
5. BALCO Drug Scandal (2004-05)
Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative, BALCO, was a San Francisco Bay Area business accused of supplying steroids to professional athletes. The hugely publicised scandal and 2002 US Federal government investigation has seen some of the biggest names in the sporting arena fall from grace - namely Major League Baseball's Barry Bonds and Olympian Marion Jones. In 2007, Jones finally admitted to lying to federal agents about her use of performance enhancing drugs (though she still maintains she didn't know she was using steroids at the time) and consequently returned the five Olympic medals she earned in Sydney and served a 6-month jail sentence in the US. As a whole, BALCO has drastically changed sport, most noticeably baseball. Prior to the scandal, every major sport except baseball had a policy against steroids. As a result of the BALCO bust, Major League Baseball commissioner, Bud Selig, instituted a written, league-wide policy
6. Hansie Cronje Betting Scandal
Cricket's dark underbelly of corruption floated to the surface in 2000 when South Africa skipper Hansie Cronje admitted to match-fixing. Banned from all cricket for life, Cronje's life ended tragedly when he was killed in a plane crash in 2002.
7. Shane Warne's Drug Suspension
'My mum gave it to me'. It was the excuse that stunned the cricket world - Shane Warne saying the diaretic which earnt him a one-year-ban was given to him by his mother. Warne was banned from all cricket for 12 months after admitting to taking the drug, claiming he did it to improve his appearence.
8. Carlton Salary Cap Scandal 2002
Before Melbourne Storm were fiddling with the books, AFL club Carlton were at it. President John Elliott is viewed as the mastermind of the scandal which cost Carlton a decade in the doldrums. It is the code's most famous breach. Carlton, in 2002, were found to have rorted the salary cap over four years and fined $987,500. That hurt, but being banned from the first two rounds of the national draft for two years set them back for years. The club picked up a first wooden spoon on the back in 2002 and went back to back on the bottom in 2005-2006 under Denis Pagan.
9. John Hopoate 'Incident' 2001
League bad boy John Hopoate was sacked by Wests Tigers club after he was suspended by the NRL for 12 weeks for allegedly putting his finger into the anuses of three North Queensland Cowboys players. Hopoate claimed that he was trying to give the players a "wedgie".
10. Sonny Bill Williams' Contract Breach 2008
The NRL lost one of its most marketable stars when Sonny Bill Williams walked out on the code following a pay dispute and a bust-up with his then-Bulldogs coach Steve Folkes. "Hopefully some good can come out of what I've done and it wakes everybody up and they realise that something needs to be done,” said Williams, who believed he was taking a stand against poor wages for rugby league players.
Mike Tyson ... a true chompion.
Source: AP
Police raids, criminal investigations and High-Court battles – Formula One got serious with ‘Spygate’ in 2007. Ultimately McLaren were excluded from the constructor’s championship for 2007 for receiving technical secrets from a disgruntled Ferrari employee.
12. Mike Tyson Ear Biting Scandal 1997
Over the course of Mike Tyson's career, it was the unpredictable and shocking that became the most expected stories. In his 1997 rematch with Evander Holyfield, Tyson’s once storied reputation sunk to an all-time low. Late in the third round, Tyson bit Holyfield on his right ear, removing a chunk and spitting it out. Amazingly Iron Mike wasn’t disqualified, merely deducted points. But when the fight resumed he dealt the same treatment to Holyfield’s left ear and the fight was over. What ensued was a riot that stretched from the ring, right into the dismayed crowd.
13. Floyd Landis Doping Case 2006
Floyd Landis was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France after a drug-control test returned a positive result for doping. Until 2010, Landis maintained his innocence, and mounted a tireless defence. Finally, after four years of denials, Landis admitted that he had continually doped in order to be competitive in a sport that was ‘dogged by cheats’. In his admission to cycling and anti-doping officials Landis also implicated dozens of other athletes, including seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong. In January 2011, Landis was unable to find a new team, and ended his professional career.
14. Wayne Carey North Melbourne Infidelity
Sportsman have long been known for their inability to 'keep it in their strides'. Wayne Carey, North Melbourne champion, was no different. But in 2002 he crossed the line when he had an affair with the wife of then-best-friend and Kangaroos teammate Anthony Stevens. Carey and Stevens were at a party of fellow 'Roo Glenn Archer when they were 'discovered' in the bathroom. Classy. Carey resigned in disgrace from North Melbourne and later found himself at Adelaide Crows.
15. Bulldogs Coffs Harbour Sex Scandal
Few rugby league scandals have had such serious and disturbing allegations as those that came out of the Bulldogs’ 2004 pre-season visit to Coffs Harbour. In town to play Canberra, the team had returned to their hotel the evening of the game. The following morning a 20-year-old woman was taken to hospital and filed a complaint of sexual assault, involving several unidentified Bulldogs players. While charges were eventually dropped due to insufficient evidence, the stain left on the club and the game would remain for years to come.
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