- Banned
- #1
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...inst-essendon-34/story-fnp04d6y-1227356933450
THE AFL is facing its most jittery and troublesome few months as it awaits the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s hearing on the Essendon doping scandal.
Bombers fans buoyed by the AFL Tribunal’s not guilty verdict are on high alert and in defensive mode. No matter what they claim about being dragged through an unnecessary new hearing, the CAS will not offer the 34 Essendon players any special considerations as it ponders their guilt or innocence over the needles program at the club in 2012.
Those sports fans who today feel numbed by the more than two years of hand wringing and ASADA investigations into the Bombers should be watching the next developments with renewed interest.
This hearing will not be conducted by one of their own. It will not be AFL people judging other AFL people on whether the club oversaw a program that involved the injection of 4000 needles in the 2012 season.
The CAS do not skirt around player welfare issues or offer special consideration to the AFL. They do not ask ASADA to jump through so many hoops that the burden of proof is impossible to scale.
The CAS makes it the sole responsibility of the athlete to prove his innocence without reasonable doubt. As it has been for every individual drug cheat snared by world doping agencies, these 34 will face the same grilling as a Russian hurdler, Chinese swimmer or American cyclist.
The evidence that the AFL said they simply could not accept will be fully admissible at the CAS. Written statements from suppliers and chemists, pretty much disregarded at the AFL tribunal, will be admissible.
THE AFL is facing its most jittery and troublesome few months as it awaits the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s hearing on the Essendon doping scandal.
Bombers fans buoyed by the AFL Tribunal’s not guilty verdict are on high alert and in defensive mode. No matter what they claim about being dragged through an unnecessary new hearing, the CAS will not offer the 34 Essendon players any special considerations as it ponders their guilt or innocence over the needles program at the club in 2012.
Those sports fans who today feel numbed by the more than two years of hand wringing and ASADA investigations into the Bombers should be watching the next developments with renewed interest.
This hearing will not be conducted by one of their own. It will not be AFL people judging other AFL people on whether the club oversaw a program that involved the injection of 4000 needles in the 2012 season.
The CAS do not skirt around player welfare issues or offer special consideration to the AFL. They do not ask ASADA to jump through so many hoops that the burden of proof is impossible to scale.
The CAS makes it the sole responsibility of the athlete to prove his innocence without reasonable doubt. As it has been for every individual drug cheat snared by world doping agencies, these 34 will face the same grilling as a Russian hurdler, Chinese swimmer or American cyclist.
The evidence that the AFL said they simply could not accept will be fully admissible at the CAS. Written statements from suppliers and chemists, pretty much disregarded at the AFL tribunal, will be admissible.
