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Ancient and modern

An ancient Olympic tradition that Fifa would love

Bribery and corruption were valued parts of the ancient games

3 January 2015

9:00 AM

3 January 2015

9:00 AM

Those nice people at Fifa seem to be having a terrible time from the British press, which never stops accusing them of bribery and corruption. What on earth is our problem? Of course games are corrupt. In the ancient world, we now know they could be legally corrupt. Perfect!

The Greek comic poet Cratinus invented three goddesses of political bribery: Doro, St Give, Dexo, St Receive and Emblo, St Backhander.

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