Fahey blasts 'blackest day' announcement
By Australian Associated Press
Published: 21:58 AEST, 27 May 2014 | Updated: 21:58 AEST, 27 May 2014
Former world anti-doping boss John Fahey has blasted the Federal Government announcement that was coined the blackest day in Australian sport.
Fahey said the handling of the landmark Australian Crime Commission (ACC) report into alleged connections between criminals and sport went against how anti-doping investigations should be conducted.
"I would have liked to have seen this dealt with in a much different fashion," Fahey said.
"I never saw any justification for that public announcement.
"There's no evidence that's come out ... that suggests that was the right decision back then.
"We must be forgiven if we think it was political - I think we have good reason to think it probably was."
Fahey made his comments at Tuesday night's Integrity In Sport Forum, held in Melbourne.
It attracted more than 200 sports administrators, athletes, lawyers and media.
On February 7 last year, the then-Labor government held a media conference featuring heads of several major Australian sports to make the report public.
Richard Ings, the former boss of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA), famously called it the blackest day in Australian sport.
Fahey was a Liberal NSW Premier and then a minister in the Howard Government before resigning from politics.
His six-year term as president of the World Anti-Doping Agency ended late last year.
"In my six years as president ... I've never seen any case conducted in a similar manner," he said of how the ACC report was released.
"It did none of us any good in terms of our confidence in sport to have that situation bubbling away.
"You start to wonder when all this is bubbling around, what the hell is going on?
"All of us will be happy when it's all over."
Outgoing AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou was one of the top sports administrators who fronted the ACC media conference.
Demetriou, one of the panellists at the integrity forum, was also sharply critical of the ACC announcement.
"That was a very unfortunate way to commence that investigation," he said.
"It damaged lots of very, very good sports, lots of very, very good people.
"I'm not saying that the message wasn't there, I'm not saying the issue wasn't a real issue.
"But the methodology ... that someone devised to announce it in that fashion was really damaging."
Two days before the ACC announcement, Essendon had announced they were coming under a joint AFL-ASADA investigation.
NRL club Cronulla also came under ASADA investigation soon after the ACC report was made public.
The ASADA investigations into the two clubs are ongoing.
Demetriou also strongly defended the controversial joint investigation with ASADA into Essendon.
The AFL hit the Bombers with a range of severe punishments last August, including banishment from the finals.
"The way the AFL and ASADA cooperated and got to an outcome where we were able to deal with the issue relating to the club," Demetriou said
"I don't know what would have happened if we hadn't moved jointly on that.
"It's quite possible it would still be going."
Demetriou also again categorically denied that the AFL was behind any of the damaging media leaks that have punctuated the Essendon supplements saga.
