He is an absolute certainty to create more history after another amazing 12 months.

Andy Murray is sure to become the first person to be crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year three times.

The Scot will end 2016 as world No.1 after winning Wimbledon and the Olympics again.

Readers of this column will already be familiar with my admiration for Murray (below).

The Argus: He also comes across as a generous spirit, so he might just agree with me that he ought not to win.

Because it is time for the British voting public to right a wrong, to remove a stain on the credibility of the award by finally recognising an all-time great.

Mo Farah is a phenomenal athlete. In Rio in the summer he completed the double-double, four gold medals in successive Olympics in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres.

It is a feat achieved by only one other man, Finnish legend Lasse Viren, who went on to become an MP in his country for eight years.

Farah, meanwhile, has been persistently - and quite scandalously - overlooked for the annual prize which supposedly recognises the best of British.

He has never won SPOTY. In fact, he has never even finished second.

Farah has made it onto the podium just once, in 2011, when he was voted into third place after winning 5,000 gold and 10,000 silver at the World Championships.

If the bookies have got it right, Farah will miss out again.

Triathlete Alistair Brownlee is clear favourite to finish runner-up to the long odds-on Murray. Farah is vying for bronze with Laura Trott.

Really? What possible justification is there for Farah to be so regularly shunned?

To be ignored when the likes of marathon runner Jo Pavey, Welsh rugby union full-back Leigh Halfpenny and rugby league stalwart Kevin Sinfield have been included in the one-two-three.

It makes no sense. It cannot be connected to the colour of his skin, not with Linford Christie, Kelly Holmes and Lewis Hamilton on the SPOTY roll of honour.

Not really British, though, is he? Hang on a minute, Farah moved to these shores from Somalia at the age of eight.

His qualification credentials are far stronger than those of Canadian-born Greg Rusedski, a previous SPOTY winner.

Another, Bradley Wiggins, was born in Ghent and spent the first two years of his life in Belgium.

It would be a sad state of affairs if the distasteful rise of Islamaphobia has counted against Farah, a devout Muslim.

Or lingering suspicion surrounding his coach, Alberto Salazar, who has been The Argus: cleared of allegations linking him to the use of performance-enhacing drugs.

The cloud hanging over Wiggins (above) in this regard is far darker.

Wiggins' triumph in 2012, together with those of other recent winners such as Hamilton and Tony McCoy, brings another consideration into play.

 

Outstanding as each of them are in their respective sporting disciplines, they all needed help. In Wiggins' case a bike, Hamilton's a Formula One car, McCoy horses that could jump and run faster than most others.

Farah has been out their on his own on the track, with African rivals ganging up on him in an attempt to unsettle and dethrone him.

They failed, just as the SPOTY vote has consistently failed him.