Martin Hannan: What would it say about the UK if a man like Tyson Fury wins SPOTY?

There’s no harm in it, except in the bad old days when the deferential Beeb nominated Princess Anne and her daughter Zara Philips, and the great British public (GBP) duly doffed their caps and voted for the Royals – as if they would do anything else.

There have been a few dodgy results down the decades – well, the main award is voted for by the GBP and of course, the public are always right – but most years the winner thoroughly deserves the award.

It is a disgrace that Mo Farah has never even been placed – and he won’t win this year because of the Alberto Salazar controversy. I can’t believe that it took so long for Tony McCoy to win, and this year I am absolutely incensed that Frankie Dettori has not even been nominated after one of the all-time great comeback stories. More about that soon.

What the programme has been doing a lot in recent years is showing up the paucity of the BBC’s coverage of sport – it must be humiliating to show so many clips from other broadcasters.

The winners have also become predictable. In an Olympic year, for instance, you can bet that a British Olympic champion will win, as has been the case every four years since 2000.

Campaigns by sports to get one of their number chosen were actually banned by the BBC more than 50 years ago when postcards were used for voting. But with telephone voting it’s impossible to say if a vote is being rigged.

This year, however, we not only have a real contest between the two most deserving likely winners, Andy Murray and Jessica Ennis-Hill, but also a genuine controversy over one of the nominees, Tyson Fury.

He is third favourite to win after Murray and Ennis-Hill but there is now a campaign to have him removed from the list of nominees after people (some of whom no doubt read this column last week) began to realise how abhorrent his views are on subjects like abortion and homosexuality.

“There are only three things that need to be accomplished before the devil comes home: one of them is homosexuality being legal in countries, one of them is abortion and the other one’s paedophilia.” Nice guy, eh?

This is his view on Ennis-Hill: “She’s good, she’s won quite a few medals, she slaps up good as well. When she’s got a dress on she looks quite fit.”

Or women in boxing: “I think they’re very nice when they’re walking around that ring, holding them cards. I like them actually. They give me inspiration when I’m tired. I’m all for it. I’m not sexist. I believe a woman’s best place is in the kitchen and on her back. That’s my personal belief. Making me a good cup of tea, that’s what I believe.”

He once tweeted from a night out: “4 down 6 to go. Then I’m off home to break the wife’s jaw.” Another time he said of her “sometimes she needs an uppercut, but other times she doesn’t”.

In fairness, it should be said he dotes on his wife most of the time, and of course he sang to her from the ring after he beat Klitshcko.

Given his personality, it was always going to be a big risk to have someone like Fury on the shortlist. He is not a wholesome man.

This was well known to most people in boxing. For some years now Fury himself has questioned whether or not he has some form of mental illness.

These are his own words: “I think I need a psychiatrist because I do believe I am mentally disturbed in some way.

“There is a name for what I have, where one minute I’m happy, and the next minute I’m sad, like commit-suicide-sad. And for no reason – nothing’s changed.

“One minute I’m over the moon and the next minute I feel like getting in my car and running it into a wall at a hundred miles an hour. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m messed up.”

Now I’m no psychiatrist but I think we’re looking at someone who is at the very least bipolar and possibly more seriously ill.

He is certainly not fit to be BBC Sports Personality of the Year. Trouble is, more of the GBP follow boxing than tennis or athletics – he could win, and what would that say about UK society?

I just hope more people find out about his disgusting views and show their disapproval by voting for Anyone But Fury. ABF – now there’s a campaign slogan.

THE last word on Lord Coe for now. Why did no one ask him about the apparent conflict of interest in his roles as chairman of CSM, the world’s fourth largest sports marketing agency, and president of the IAAF?

According to the Financial Times and Private Eye, Coe says there are no conflicts because his interests are all declared. I merely point out that in October 2012, London Olympics boss Coe walked into the job with CSM, whose subsidiary ICON was responsible for a massive branding exercise for the 2012 Games. A month after that, Coe became chairman of the British Olympic Association.

There may be no direct conflict between his interests, but is it right that one man has so much influence?

SNP challenge BBC over Tyson Fury’s Sports Personality of the Year nomination

The National View: A bigot like Tyson Fury has no place on BBC award shortlist