AFL enacts news laws to fight drug scourge
Australia's major sporting codes have been rocked by allegations of widespread use of performance enhancing drugs, links to organised crime and match fixing.
In one of the darkest days for Australian sport, the Australian Crime Commission released details of a secret 12-month investigation uncovering the use of prohibited substances by many professional athletes.
The report came as a doping scandal threatened to engulf Essendon Football Club, with claims a convicted drug trafficker supplied the team with banned supplements.
Just hours after the report was released, the AFL revealed it had called every club president, coach, chief executive and football manager to a meeting next week to outline laws that will give the league unprecedented intelligence on their tactics and employees.
AFL chairman Mike Fitzpatrick called an emergency commission meeting yesterday to introduce new laws and expand its integrity unit in an attempt to fight back against the criminal elements exposed by the ACC.
Those laws will require clubs to notify the AFL of every drug or substance given to players and the league will audit all supplements and treatments. AFL medical commissioners will meet all club doctors to review practices and the supervision of treatments.
The AFL will do background checks of every club staff member or subcontractor, introduce mandatory reporting of doping activity or approaches and establish a whistleblower service.
AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou said it had become clear intelligence was crucial to protecting the integrity of the sport.
"After today, there will be people at all of our clubs, working at all different levels, which would include players, that will have had a wake-up call," he said.
"They will be sitting there thinking with this scrutiny - what should I do? That's a very good question.
"If you are out there and you think that you can run the gauntlet of cheating in this system, whether it be with salary cap, the use of performance enhancing drugs, gambling etc, make no mistake, you will be caught."
Victorian police announced they had set up a squad to investigate organised crime in sport and were examining whether criminal charges could be laid, with Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Graham Ashton revealing a recent A-League soccer match in Melbourne had attracted $40 million in bets from a single Asia-based bookmaker.
Police have identified spot betting - where gamblers bet on specific parts of a game - as a major corruption risk.
Independent senator Nick Xenophon said the evidence was clear that spot betting must be banned. "If you ban spot betting it's going to make it that much easier to enforce it and shrink the opportunities (for corruption)," he said.
The ACC said it had identified the use of prohibited substances such as peptides and hormones on an enormous scale in a range of codes, with the drug abuse assisted by coaches, sports scientists and club officials.
The major focus of the investigation is understood to be the AFL and NRL. Cricket and soccer are not believed to be implicated at this stage.
The Federal agency said organised crime identities were involved in the distribution of drugs to clubs and warned that this relationship between crime figures and players might have led to match fixing and manipulation of betting markets.
Using extraordinary powers, the ACC conducted almost 30 so-called coercive hearings into doping cases.
Volumes of evidence have been sent to State and Federal police for investigation and possible charges.
The ACC has released no names of those thought to be involved, though the confidential report handed to State police does identify suspects.
WA Police confirmed they had been briefed on the findings, but declined to say whether any local players or officials might be pursued.
Justice Minister Jason Clare said any player or official doing the wrong thing should come forward.
"Don't underestimate how much we know and if you are involved in this, come forward before you get a knock at the door," he said.
