Now football has failed Britain, we must find another national game

SIR – The football scandal is, sadly, typical of a sport where greed and dishonesty is rife. Surely, it is now time to find another sport which we can adopt as our “national game”. Jeff Peck Stamford, Lincolnshire

SIR – One of the ironies of the scandal in football is that sports are widely regarded as helping to provide “moral leadership”.

The late Dr John Rae, head of Westminster School, in his book Letters to Parents, describes how sports were introduced into schools to “tame the student mob”, coming to take on “all the attributes of a religion”.

As Dr Rae put it: “Sports were seen as important for the development of character, and character seen as superior to intellect.” He quotes a cartoon from an Edwardian edition of Punch: “Teacher to Pupil: Of course you needn’t work, Fitzmilksoppe, but play you must, and play you shall.”

I recently came across a survey, on the web, which indicated that, in America, “athletes” were regarded with much greater respect than “scholars”. One of the authors of the survey posed the question: “If teachers are unwilling or unable to defend the importance of education, who is supposed to do their job for them?” Peter Davey Bournemouth, Dorset

SIR – In 1966 I saw England win the World Cup, which started a life-long love affair with football. As with all relationships there have been ups and downs, but the naked greed now displayed by players, managers, agents and administrators is leading to a separation. The “beautiful game” is now just a grubby money tree. Roger Gentry Sutton at Hone, Kent

SIR – The resignation of Sam Allardyce is confirmation of what has been clear for years – that football has been destroyed by money. Money and marketing are now becoming more and more a problem with rugby union

SIR – For nearly 70 years it has been against the rules of Britain’s hunting associations for packs to buy or sell hounds. However, hounds are regularly transferred between packs free of charge, with nothing in return except maybe a bottle of whisky, and the satisfaction of helping out another hunt.

How long can it be before the Football Association catches up with this enlightened outlook, and bans clubs from buying and selling players? William Proudfoot Fawkham, Kent

SIR – Your Saturday Prize Crossword No 28204 (August 27) contained the clue “Manager sacked as clearly mad (3,9)”. The answer was Sam Allardyce.

Are all your compilers prescient? Peter Austerberry Cardiff