There are questions to which there is no obvious answer.

Profound questions, such as “Does God exist?” or “Is there life elsewhere in the universe?”

And questions of a less portentous nature: “What is the point of flies?” “Why does the shorter queue at Sainsbury’s always turn out to take the longer time?” “Who do you sue if are injured recreating your own personal injury for an accident claim company’s TV commercial?”

And then there is, if you will, a question of sport. Why is Ryan Giggs BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 2009?

Now before we go any further, let’s make one thing clear. I think Giggs is a footballer of beauty.

Eighteen years ago, at the beginning of December, I was fortunate enough to see the young marvel, just turned 18, putting on a performance at Crystal Palace that opened up successions of sunny avenues on a day of grey.

With a backheel here, a surge and shimmy there, Giggs, inevitably, recalled that other pale, frail winger whom Old Trafford had taken to its bosom a quarter of a century earlier. On that wintry afternoon, Giggs set Manchester United on the route to victory with an effort of astounding directness.

Having received the ball direct from the keeper, he sprinted with simple intent towards the Palace goal before sending in a swooping, swerving shot from 25 yards which cannoned down off the bar, allowing Neil Webb to tap in past the shell-shocked Palace keeper Nigel Martyn.

Effectively, Giggs has been doing that for United ever since as he has amassed every honour the club game has to offer. Eric Cantona has been and gone. Ronaldo has been and gone. Giggs has endured, inspiring and admired.

To be described as the best player United have ever had by Paul Scholes, never noted for hyperbole, is a tribute indeed.

But why has Giggs found himself in receipt of the unfeasibly large TV camera trophy – I’ve always thought it looks like an undressed Dalek - halfway through what has been, for him, just another season of excellence?

Why has Jenson Button not received the award which many felt was his due after the seismic leap in his career which brought him the Formula One world title?

Okay, Button’s compatriot - and prospective team-mate - Lewis Hamilton was also beaten to the chequered flag in 2008 despite earning the F1 title. But on that occasion the Sports Personality award went to a man whose achievements in the calendar year were undeniable, cycling’s triple Olympic champion Chris Hoy.

Will Button ever reach these heights again? Will he even finish ahead of his clear-eyed team-mate? It might be nice to think so, but you wouldn’t put big money on it.

This was Button’s big chance. But the bookie favourite was left in Giggs’s slipstream on the night as he received 96,770 votes (18.74 per cent) as against the United stalwart’s 151,842 (29.4 per cent).

It was a runaway win for the contender who had least claim to have done anything special in 2009.

No wonder Giggs (pictured) appeared shocked by the result. What else could the poor boy do but accept the award with his customary awkward charm? 

This was not the first Sports Personality award to raise eyebrows. There was much facial twitching when Greg Rusedski, British as maple syrup, took the award in 1997 despite not winning any event of note.

But then the naturalised Briton had reached what turned out to be the peak of his competitve career in that year by finishing runner-up in the US Open final.

Questions were raised, too, in 1994 when Damon Hill took the camera-on-stilts despite failing to win the F1 title. Then again, that award could have been explained by the sympathy the Briton earned after the highly questionable collision with his rival Michael Schumacher in the 1994 Australian Grand Prix which left the title in the hands of the German driver by one point.

Two years later Hill stepped forward last again at the BBC bunfight – but this time as F1 champion.

As far as this year’s award is concerned, the main question appertains to the shortlist of 10 candidates assembled for the public to vote over.

How can it be that Giggs was shortlisted for the 2009 award, when in 2008, having scored decisively in the penalty shoot-out against Chelsea which saw United claim the ultimate club honour of the European Cup for the second  time in his career, he was not?

Once there, the duty to Manchester United’s followers far and wide was clear. Fly the Reds’ flag. Vote for Giggsy.

It was by placing Giggs into contention that the BBC effectively turned the award into their version of the New Year’s Honours List. They set up Giggs as a winner by Buggin’s Turn on a night when he should have been in the running for the Lifetime Achievement award.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the last five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames