No deadlines for AFL, NRL probes: Fahey
Date
August 31, 2013
Samantha Lane
Sports Writer
World Anti-Doping Agency boss John Fahey has encouraged Australian authorities to ignore imaginary deadlines and take as long as required to investigate the AFL and NRL.
Providing no comfort to anxious players, administrators and fans, Fahey's comments come after the AFL this week finalised sanctioning of Essendon for poor governance, and as the NRL doping probe intensified with a banned drug use and trafficking admission by Sandor Earl.
In a statement to Fairfax Media on Friday, the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority would not say whether its AFL investigations were on hold while the focused turned to the NRL.
ASADA said ''it would be inappropriate … to comment on decisions of the AFL Commission''.
It said it could not provide a timeframe on the conclusion of the probe into Essendon ''due to the complexities of the matters involved''.
With investigations continuing, and biochemist Stephen Dank refusing to be interviewed, it remains possible that Essendon players could be issued with infraction notices for anti-doping rule breaches.
Fahey said: ''ASADA must take whatever time it takes to do it professionally and thoroughly, and I have full faith in their capacity to conduct themselves properly in that regard.''
Responding to specific questions put by Fairfax Media, the agency would not acknowledge the sense of public expectation around delivering a conclusive finding about Essendon.
It would not say whether it would eventually announce its position on the Bombers either way. New federal Sports Minister Don Farrell has remained largely silent on the government-funded agency's ongoing investigations.
Regarding the delivery of a conclusive finding, ASADA would only say that it had provided assurances that the investigation would be conducted in a ''timely'' fashion.
''To date this has involved interviewing more than 150 people and reviewing more than 50,000 documents across sporting codes,'' the agency said.
ASADA described both the NRL and AFL investigations as ''complex … wide-ranging … [and] ongoing''.
When the Essendon sanctions were announced this week, club chairman Paul Little said of AOD-9604: ''We don't accept that it was a prohibited substance during 2012.''
Fahey, who is soon to stand aside as WADA president, said on Friday: ''Nothing has changed since WADA made a statement earlier this year.''
The statement to which Fahey referred was issued by WADA in April and stated that AOD-9604 had ''not been approved for therapeutic use by any government health authority in the world''.
WADA clarified, in April, that it categorised AOD-9604 in the catch-all S0 section of the world anti-doping prohibited list, making it banned for use by athletes.
''Nothing has changed,'' Fahey said. ''And it won't change, as far as WADA is concerned, until such time as there is an adverse finding in the Court of Arbitration for Sport that would suggest we need to re-look at it.''
