Imagine you are a lawyer in a big law firm and you think one of the partners has an unfair advantage over you, gifted to them by the company management.

You learn that at least one other lawyer in the firm feels the same way, and you take your concerns to the media. It turns out that the management have done almost everything according to the book. You are just wrong and it looks like you’re making excuses for your own lack of performance.

Your statements to the media have brought the company into disrepute which, as any lawyer will tell you, renders you liable to a charge of gross misconduct for which you can be dismissed.

For managers these days are very aware of the need to maintain esprit de corps, team spirit, especially in these increasingly competitive times and when a company organisation has a major challenge ahead of it.

Usually, but not always, when someone makes such a serious allegation against company management and an individual, those involved are suspended pending an investigation into the accusation.

The key point in my scenario is that the lawyer went to the press. Normally that would not create a brouhaha but if the organisation and the complainer are very high-profile and public money is involved, it’s big and damaging story.

I chose the example of a lawyer advisably, because I know Lynsey Sharp has a law degree, gained from Napier University in Edinburgh.

At the weekend, the runner made frankly astonishing claims that Lottery-funded British Athletics were showing favouritism to her fellow Scot Laura Muir. You may recall that Muir won the 800m in the British Championships in Birmingham, a meeting that was dominated by Scots.

Before the race, a formal protest was made to the track referee at the Alexander Stadium by former European indoor champion Matt Yates, who coaches Revee Walcott-Nolan, centring on claims that Muir had missed the entry deadline for the 800m and was only listed to run in the 1500m.

Sharp then spoke to the media saying: “Games have been played all week by individuals and also by our governing body, which is meant to be unbiased. It’s disappointing.

“You can call me bitter but I play by the rules and I came here prepared based on what I knew the field was going to be and that was different on Saturday morning. There was a list of accepted athletes and that changed late on Friday night. Throughout the whole week we prepare for who we know our competitors are going to be. To throw something else in the mix overnight is playing a game. It wasn’t fair, is all I can say.”

That is jawdropping stuff. As a huge admirer of Sharp as a great Scottish athlete – her Unionist stance before the 2014 referendum makes me no fan of her politics – and as someone who has lauded her father, Cameron, both for his achievements on the track and courage off it, I would usually be demanding a full inquiry and heads on a plate from an organisation which, after all, now brands itself as British Athletics when it used to be UK Athletics (a bit of Union Jackery there?).

But the fact is Laura Muir did nothing wrong, having entered both the 1500m and 800m on time, and while British Athletics have questions to answer over why their “extranet” digital entry system did not update itself, I am afraid Sharp – law degree holder, don’t forget – is bang out of order.

For, as a source within the governing body confirmed, and as all athletes should know, the only guaranteed entry list which can be relied on is the one issued on the day of competition. Sure, the technology should have worked, but I can tell you with absolute certainty that the governing body will not be changing the result.

Having been beaten into fifth, Sharp will probably not now be picked for next month’s European Championships, a competition in which she won gold in 2012. She might have been selected as a “discretionary pick” for Berlin, but who’s going to take someone who has under-performed recently and after the weekend is looking like a bit of a moaner?

In the past, Sharp has also blasted the situation where Caster Semenya of South Africa is allowed to compete in women’s events despite having elevated testosterone levels. Sharp’s views have made her no friends in many places.

My worry is that team spirit thing. By going public against her younger, better rival, Sharp has damaged both Team Scotland and her beloved Team GB.

Sharp should apologise in public to Laura Muir, and then get back on track.