An analysis of the key cases in which a lack of scientific evidence and protocol have gravely undermined WADA’s role in anti-doping.
WADA
Sports Integrity Initiative: Mamadou Sakho – Dommages collatéraux dans une ère de dénonciation publique
Doping, Sports LawLe footballeur de Liverpool, Mamadou Sakho, a été blanchi plus tôt cette année suite à une enquête de dopage imparfaite. Sa carrière reste dans la balance, tandis que l’AMA, l’organisation qui a si peu contrôlé l’affaire, n’a pas encore été tenu de rendre des comptes.
Sports Integrity Initiative: Mamadou Sak-who? Collateral damage in an era of name and shame
Doping, Sports LawThe Liverpool footballer, Mamadou Sakho, was exonerated earlier this year following a flawed doping investigation. His career remains in the balance while WADA, the organisation that so ineptly policed the affair, has yet to be held to account.
Sports Integrity Initiative: Perera acquittal a worry for WADA and athletes alike
Doping, Sports LawSri Lankan international cricketer Kusal Perera has had his provisional suspension lifted with immediate effect after the International Cricket Council (ICC) withdrew all disciplinary charges yesterday. The turnaround comes after the WADA-accredited laboratory in Qatar withdrew its original Adverse Analytical Finding after further investigations found that the cause of the finding may have been naturally generated. ‘We wish to make it clear that there is no evidence that Mr Perera has ever used performance-enhancing substances,’ the ICC said in a statement.
Sports Integrity Initiative: Behind the headlines – WADA’s Doping Report
Doping, Sports LawThe World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) published its second annual Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRVs) Report on Wednesday evening, revealing a number of remarkable statistics. Not all of these, however, were immediately noticeable.
There are a number of headline findings, but the data also throws up some more interesting statistics that need a bit more digging to get to.
Sports Integrity Initiative: Substantial Assistance – WADA’s carrot to its stick?
Doping, Sports LawJust last week professional cyclist David Millar, who was banned for two years in 2004 after admitting to doping, condemned the manner in which the fight against doping was being administered.
At the Tackling Doping in Sport conference, Millar said that athletes were being put off coming forward with information. He criticised in particular the strict liability four-year ban that the World Anti-Doping Code has imposed since 1 January 2015 for doping offences.
Sports Integrity Initiative: Sharapova, ignorance, and WADA’s culpability
Doping, Sports LawIgnorance of the law is no excuse.
Since the evolution of justice, this principle has endured; a person may not escape liability for the violation of a law simply for not knowing it existed.
Sports Integrity Initiative: The destruction of samples and Martial Saugy
Doping, Sports LawAndy Brown and Isabelle Westbury
One of the most stunning revelations from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Independent Commission report, published on 9 November, was that both the WADA-accredited anti-doping laboratories in Moscow and Lausanne had destroyed athlete samples, against the specific instructions of WADA. New information relating to the role that the Director of the Lausanne Laboratory, Martial Saugy, played at the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games raises new questions about the nature and extent of his relationship with the Russian Ministry of Sport and the Moscow Laboratory.
Sports Integrity Initiative: IAAF Update – ‘We have no knowledge of this’
Doping, Sports LawIt’s been a busy few months for anti-corruption in sport, with the on-going FIFA scandal erupting in May; resignations, corruption allegations and match-fixing trials plaguing the world of cricket; and now athletics has been mired in a scandal of its own. As the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) prepares to deliver the findings of its independent Commission’s investigations into doping and corruption allegations in athletics, with much centring around Russian athletics, here’s an update on what’s happened so far.
Sports Integrity Initiative: AFL players’ doping bans sparks illicit drugs policy debate
Doping, Sports LawTwo players of the Australian Football League (AFL) club Collingwood, Lachlan Keeffe and Josh Thomas, have accepted two-year bans after testing positive for the banned substance clenbuterol. The bans are backdated to their provisional suspension by the AFL in March earlier this year. Collingwood released a statement saying that, in accordance with the AFL Anti-Doping Code and the World Anti-Doping Agency, the two footballers had been delisted by the club and would be fined approximately $50,000 (€33,630) each, which includes having part of their 2015 player payments withheld, a figure agreed to by the players and their representatives.
Isabelle Westbury 