WE ARE in the middle of a fascinating period when the links between sport and business are being revealed as a delicate balancing act.

In the last 10 days or so, the world has witnessed the impact of the turmoil in Tiger Woods’s personal life, and the resulting partial collapse of his phenomenally successful network of sponsorships and endorsements.

Closer to home, we have also heard Liverpool FC’s beleaguered manager say that curbing his club’s debt may be a short-term priority, in front of buying new players to build a squad capable of achieving more lucrative success.

This sounded a lot like expectation management, and, as we know, expectations around Anfield always tend to be on the high end of the scale.

Elsewhere, the near hysteria that greeted England’s draw for next year’s World Cup Finals in South Africa shows little sign of easing. The Woods story – whatever and wherever the truth of it all may lie – will surely go down as yet another example of how the modern world’s mass media can make then break individuals.

Ironically, it’s that same mass media that has done so much to create the Tiger Brand – a brand that became so powerful at driving gate money and TV audiences wherever he lined up to tee off.

For the brands lining up to maximise the potential of England’s World Cup campaign, Sunday’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year may have made anxious television. After all, without a crystal ball, who knows which of these stars will continue to shine and which may lose their sparkle.