Beware the border crossings that have changed athletics map

The City of Manchester Stadium played host to the Commonwealth Games in 2002 and Stephen Cherono of Kenya won the gold medal in the 3000m steeplechase. Six months later he accepted a deal that, apparently, a man in his position could not refuse.

A guaranteed monthly income and large bonuses based on performance would be his as long as he changed his name, religion and nationality. The offer came from Qatar and he accepted much to the moral indignation of myself and countless athletics fans who thought it was wrong. Perhaps, surprisingly, we had to wait six years for something similar to happen in football and ironically it is the same stadium and its football club that are leading the field.

The countries involved are neighbours but different, while the sums of money involved do not stand a test of relativity. Nonetheless there are perhaps some aspects of the cacophony around Kaka that throw up questions all sports may have to grapple with.

Cherono was the first of a number of what were termed transferees. Funnily enough I cannot imagine a scenario where any footballer, let alone Kaka, would refer to himself as a transferee. Sounds too much like refugee.

The main buyers in the market were Qatar and Bahrain and the primary sellers were Kenya and Ethiopia, who seemingly had talent to spare. Both Arab nations were, and still are, keen to develop sport in their countries and events such as the Asian Games continue to grow in prominence. It is desirable now to be able to win medals as well as host such competitions.

Rashid Ramzi was a relatively unknown athlete from Morocco who switched to Bahrain five years ago and after winning double gold at the world championships in 2005, he claimed his adopted country's first Olympic Gold medal in Beijing. It is thought that his bonus might have been big enough to buy a new pair of trainers. Arguably the world's No1 female distance runner is Maryam Yusuf Jamal, a former Ethiopian, who swapped allegiance to Bahrain although she finished a disappointing fifth at the Olympics.

Haile Gebrselassie will not be moving but he did channel his winter energies into reportedly the world's richest marathon which was held in Dubai last week. He missed the million dollar bonus for breaking his own world record, unbelievably, due to adverse weather; you know it is not going to be your lucky day if it rains in Dubai.

Qatar bid for the 2016 Olympics and Doha is now one of the premier meets on the athletics grand prix calendar despite being little over 10 years old.

The point is that if wealthy Middle Eastern states or individuals want to invest in your sport then, however disproportionate it may seem, there are not too many people in the sport who are going to start moral hill climbing.

However unfair it may seem that Qatar won a bronze medal at the world cross country championships the fact is that these athletes benefited and so others will follow. Even if Kaka does not arrive at Eastlands, or whatever it is called now, then somebody else will. If the Royal family of Abu Dhabi want to have the world's best football team then who is going to stop them?

If the world's best golfers, tennis or snooker players are happy to go to Dubai or Doha at odd times of the year then good luck to them. Horse racing long since saw its crown jewels snapped up yet the sport does not appear to have suffered.

The issue in football tends to be that those of us who fork out to go and watch or sit in front of the box still have the seriously misplaced notion that our paltry pennies give us some sense of ownership. If they ever did, that time has long since passed.

So come on City fans, stop the false hubris and embrace the cash. The rest of us should be happy that for the time being the purse holders have not yet decided that the United Arab Emirates should win the 2018 World Cup. Let's face it, if a player such as Kaka is prepared to move to Manchester City for personal financial gain then the small matter of a change of passport might prove a price worth paying for many. Incidentally if he were available for transfer and I had enough funds available then the most exciting prospect in world middle distance running is Sudanese. His name is Kaki!