No sooner had the majority of us stowed the Christmas tree away safely in the loft and polished off the last of the champagne, the FIFA Ethics Committee thrust themselves into the limelight as its Investigatory Chamber recommended banning already-suspended secretary general Jérôme Valcke for nine years.

The accusations against the Frenchman, considered banned President Sepp Blatter’s chief aide and right-hand man, are damning. It is claimed the 55-year-old was involved in a money-making scheme to sell tickets for FIFA’s flagship event, the World Cup, for way above their often extortionate face value, and he is also facing allegations surrounding a $10 million (£7 million/€9 million) bribe.

The money, one of many alleged lewd and corrupt payments which have supposedly changed hands between FIFA officials in recent times, was reportedly given to disgraced FIFA vice-president Jack Warner in return for his vote for South Africa’s bid to host the 2010 World Cup, providing perhaps the most disturbing accusation on Valcke’s rap sheet.

Any link, however tenuous it may be, to Trinidadian Warner ultimately spells the end and it is highly unlikely that the Adjudicatory Chamber of the Ethics Committee, often lambasted for a lack of action, will go against their Investigatory counterparts. Expect Valcke to be banned from footballing activity until at least 2025.

If he is indeed guilty and was to receive that punishment, he could have no complaints.

A high proportion of those 41 officials and entities who have been indicted by the United States Department of Justice on a range of corruption charges cannot purport to have directly influenced World Cup bid processes, as a large majority of them are accused of bribery in relation to media and marketing rights for matches and tournaments, mostly in the South and Central American regions. Still a crime, of course, but arguably less so than getting in to bed with the infamous Warner.

Perhaps in a bid to regain the centre of attention which he clearly so desperately craves, Michel Platini then decided to call time on his attempt to replace friend-turned-foe Blatter as head of world football’s governing body, claiming he had “not been given the chance to play the game”, before declaring: “Bye bye, FIFA. Bye bye, FIFA Presidency."

There will be many who will be glad to see the back of him despite the former France international’s suggestion that he had “150 declarations of support” backing him to lead FIFA out of the mire.

But the simple fact of the matter is Platini being allowed to stand was about as likely as any one of the crooked individuals involved in the most extensive, widespread and downright saddening crisis to ever engulf the governing body actually being honest about their part in it all.

After all, he was recently slapped with an eight-year ban, along with Blatter, for a series of ethics breaches and until that suspension is removed, he would not have been able to participate in the election.

Yes, there was the minutest of minute chances that he could have been successful in his appeal either to FIFA’s Appeals Committee, or when that inevitably failed, to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which may have earned him a place on the start line.

Strangely, if that had been the case, he may have still been the favourite to take over the FIFA hotseat from Blatter as he wouldn’t have needed to do the amount of campaigning the other candidates are undertaking. His stranglehold on the European Member Associations, coupled with his apparent plethora of supporters, may have proved enough to get him elected.

Thankfully, we need not entertain such a grim prospect any longer.

On the same day that Platini decided to quit the Presidential race, the IAAF continued its “anything you can do we can do better” mantra, maintaining an implicit battle with FIFA for the title of most corrupt sporting organisation after its Ethics Commission banned three officials for life while handing the other a lengthy five-year suspension.

Papa Massata Diack, the consultant and son of former President Lamine Diack, who himself remains the subject of a French criminal investigation, former IAAF treasurer and All-Russia Athletic Federation President Valentin Balakhnichev, previously the Soviet national athletics coach from 1978 to 1984, and race-walking coach Alexei Melnikov are the trio who will never play a part in the sport of athletics again, with former IAAF anti-doping director Gabriel Dollé the recipient of the five-year ban.

Their charges? Covering up systemic and state-supported doping by Russian athletes in exchange for serious sums of money, including payments totalling approximately £435,000 ($634,000/€583,000) made by Liliya Shobukhova, the 2010 London Marathon winner and a three-time Chicago Marathon champion.

It was a further example that the scandal currently plaguing world athletics’ governing body is, arguably, far worse than FIFA’s issues, for this involves tainting sport by directly influencing the results of races and events purely to lace their corrupt pockets.

Such despicable acts need to be as far removed from sport as possible; doping undermines and undervalues the very notion and credibility of sport and those who choose to conceal the cheating of others are even more culpable than those who doped in the first place.

By hiding the truth, they are not only disrespecting the millions of athletics fans all over the globe but they are also damaging the careers of those who might have been agonisingly close to winning Olympic gold, only to be denied by someone who has the advantage of an illicit substance inside their system.

While we knew a decision from the Ethics Commission was on the horizon, the timing of the decision to announce the verdict against the quartet was significant, coming exactly a week before the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Independent Commission publishes its eagerly-anticipated second report.

It also came after President Sebastian Coe, whose brief tenure in charge of world athletics’ governing body has already been tumultuous to say the least, unveiled his “roadmap” - anyone else sick of that word? - to restore the trust and credibility of his sport, which has seen its reputation dragged through the mud on a regular basis.

Coe, who has belatedly resigned his ambassadorship of global sportswear brand Nike amid accusations of a conflict of interest, was hit with a further blow when his chief of staff and deputy secretary general Nick Davies opted to step down on a temporary basis last month while the Ethics Commission investigates suggestions he delayed naming Russian athletes who had tested positive for banned-performance enhancing drugs.

But he seems keen to show that his organisation are willing to pick up from where they left off last year, starting 2016 as they mean to go on by giving out strong sentences as a warning sign to those who may yet fall on their sword in the near future.

“The life bans announced today could not send a stronger message that those who attempt to corrupt or subvert the sport of athletics will be brought to justice,” he said of the Ethics Commission decision, handed down on Thursday (January 7). He of all people will know the work is just beginning.

The recent dramatic developments in both sports also raised an old adage: is this positive or negative news for sport as a whole?

Both sides can be argued with equal weighting. On the one hand, ridding the sports of those who have opted to stray into the unethical and the illegal is surely beneficial, but in terms of the IAAF Ethics Commission report and athletics in particular, this week’s news also revealed some disturbing accusations which will only tarnish its reputation even further.

In the report, the possibility was also raised that other countries, such as Morocco and Turkey, may have been involved in positive drugs tests being covered-up - truly damning accusations which could open up a minefield of nations who chose to protect the dopers rather than open themselves up to condemnation.

For those who have not yet been indicted, charged or banned, be warned, as this week’s latest batch of bans and suspensions provided further evidence that the house of cards within the corrupt sporting world is continuing to tumble.

Twenty-sixteen may be the year where it finally falls down completely.