WADA appeal into Essendon verdict: Too big even for City Hall
Date
May 12, 2015 - 5:48PM
Greg Baum
Chief sports columnist and associate editor with The Age
You can't fight City Hall, they said. You won't stop the AFL from having its way. And so it proved. First, the AFL collaborated with ASADA in a doping investigation, brought charges against Essendon, and applied its own ad hoc and severe sanctions against officials and the club. Then it lobbied in public statements for mitigation for the players at the independent tribunal, and succeeded. This, separate from the legality and the morality, was the functionality. The AFL got its way. City Hall won.
But this latest unexpected development takes it out of City Hall's hands. The AFL's tentacles spread far and wide, but (except in its dreams) not beyond Australia. WADA is an international body, CAS an international court. When it convenes, it will consist of a panel of three arbitrators from a list of about 300, one chosen by WADA, one by Essendon, and a chairman. The chairman does not have to be Australian, and the panelist chosen by WADA almost certainly won't be. Essendon's choice is restricted: only four of the 300 are Melbourne-based, and two have previous involvement in the case, and presumably are disqualified.
If this ever was a case that could be worked out between like-minded acquaintances in back corridors or at football games and other convivial haunts, it is no longer. You have to think that this is at least partly why WADA has appealed, that without impugning the integrity of the jurists on the AFL tribunal, it felt their decision was made in an atmosphere altogether too cousinly and collegial. It was made in the shadows of City Hall.
While contemplating conspiracies, there's more. CAS is independent now, but it was born out of the Olympic movement and still retains strong links. Its president, John Coates, is also president of the Australian Olympic Committee and a long-standing member of the IOC. It would be fair to say that the AFL and Olympic movement in Australia are not close. The Olympics people dislike the AFL's power and reach, and the AFL is suspicious of the AOC's influence in government circles. Sotto voce, Olympics officials have made their thoughts known about Essendon.
Twenty-seven months later, and still it is wheels within wheels, within big wheels, still turning.
