Problems abound in professional sports

This could be because the existence of the world's highest class of auto racing is hanging by a thin thread, or as The Times of London put it, “Formula One has reached its Armageddon.”

At the heart of the crisis is the decision by F1's governing body, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), to institute an optional 40-million-pound (US$65 million) budget-cap to the teams as a way to help save money under the current economic climate.

Under the budget-capping rule, the FIA will reward extra technical freedom to teams that opt for an annual budget of 40 million pounds or lower.

In a sport where cutting-edge technology and the split of a second determine the podium order, technical freedom can be the difference between winning and losing.

Forty million pounds is a lot of money, but in the world's most expensive sport it does not amount to much.

It is only a little more than one-tenth of the budget of the top team.

In protest of such budget-cap, most of the top teams, including Ferrari, McLaren Mercedes and the current leader Brawn GP, threatened to break away from F1 to start their own series.

If the teams' threat turns out to be more than the usual political positioning before negotiation with the FIA, F1 racing will be seriously hampered.

The F1 conundrum is only one of the bad news in the world of sports in recent years.

The under-age problem of China's women gymnasts embarrassed Beijing in an otherwise outstanding 2008 Olympics performance.

In Taiwan, the nation's favorite sport, baseball, is plunged by gambling and game rigging.

In the U.S. Major League Baseball, on the other hand, a number of great players have been caught using performance enhancement drugs.

The inclination to argue, to gamble or to cheat is as old as history itself.

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