Bombers can't claim drug wasn't banned: WADA
David Mark reported this story on Monday, May 6, 2013 08:09:00
TONY EASTLEY: The Essendon AFL club is expected today to release Ziggy Switkowski's long-awaited report into the drug and governance issues at the club.
That issue is the supplements program run last year by the Bomber's former sports scientist, Stephen Dank, and what the club knew about it.
Today Essendon players are also expected to begin their interviews with ASADA.
A key point will be whether the players took banned drugs.
One man who's been watching events is the director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency, David Howman, who visited Australia last week.
David Mark reports.
DAVID MARKS: The biochemist Stephen Dank has told the ABC's 7.30 that he gave some players at Essendon a drug known as AOD-9604.
The drug was recently included on the World Anti Doping Agency's list of banned drugs.
On the weekend Mr Dank told a newspaper he could use the drug because it wasn't named on the WADA prohibited list last year. But that ignores WADA's catch-all ban on all drugs not approved for human use.
David Howman is WADA's director general.
DAVID HOWMAN: Look the drug comes under a category on our prohibited list called section S0, then that sections been designed - it's been in place since 2011 - to ensure that human athletes, elite athletes around the world are not used as guinea pigs for drugs for drugs that have not been approved for therapeutical medical use.
It's a catch-all section, it's there intentionally to protect the health of athletes and as I say to prevent them from being used as guinea pigs.
DAVID MARKS: So the fact that it is not specifically names on the S2 list that he refers to on the WADA code, is irrelevant?
DAVID HOWMAN: It's banned under S0 and you know, I just don't think the discussion needs to go any further than that.
DAVID MARKS: Now we don't know whether that particular drug was used on the Essendon players, we may know a little bit later today when the Switkowski report into the governance at the Essendon Football Club is released. But we theoretically could have a situation in Australia where almost the entire Essendon playing roster - now this is the team that's on top of the ladder and undefeated - could face anti-doping violations. Is that something you believe could occur?
DAVID HOWMAN: Well look, I think the investigation is taking its place in the normal fashion. The one thing that I was not aware of until I visited Australia recently was that all the information that had been gathered by the crime commission cannot be used as evidence per say by the Australian sports anti-doping agency. So, what they have to do is re-collect the information in such a way that they can present it as evidence in any one of their tribunals.
DAVID MARKS: David Howman, as I mentioned, Essendon is sitting at the top of the ladder. The AFL has a lot of interest in Essendon continuing to play games, not the least of it being multimillion dollar TV rights agreements. Does the AFL have a means of cutting a deal with ASADA so players wouldn't be forced to miss games to avoid anti-doping violations?
DAVID HOWMAN: I don't know of anything where you could call cutting a deal. I do know that there are ways and means of addressing these matters in a professional way and my understanding is that the AFL are going about it in a professional way today, so is ASADA. And you would hope with two decent professional groups getting together they would find a way forward.
DAVID MARKS: It's expected ASADA could resume interviewing Cronulla NRL players this week, after the first interview was called off last Monday.
ASADA's lawyers ended the interview when the Cronulla player Wade Graham when he refused to name other players on the grounds that he could incriminate himself.
WADA's director general, David Howman.
DAVID HOWMAN: They have to work with the powers that they've got. I know what they're doing and they're trying to do a professional job. It would be a pity that that would be derailed by people looking for technicalities, but that's the want of lawyers.
I think the issue here is one where ASADA must be extremely frustrated when they've got a lot of data and information, a huge press conference announcing it with the crime commission and they've got to go and do the job again, and, so they must be sitting on data that leads them to take those steps and you would hope that people would come out with it.
TONY EASTLEY: The director general of the World Anti Doping Agency, David Howman speaking to AM's David Mark and you can hear David's full interview with Mr Howman on our website.
