“Corruption is an unpleasant crime, and its widespread effects are invariably socially corrosive. Then again, until recently European firms almost had an incentive to pay bribes in order to secure contracts in the developing world; they could write off such payments against tax. Joao Havelange resigned last week as honorary president of FIFA, in the wake of irrefutable evidence that his hand was in the cookie jar, helping itself to bribes from collapsed sports marketing company ISL. The British press have led an aggressive anti-FIFA campaign and hence might be disappointed then to see the low key way the news of Havelange’s resignation was been treated in many parts of the world.” Tim Vickery