‘You do the crime, You do the time.’ That line has been around for decades.
In sport it should be no different. In football if you trip a player as he is running through to score, you concede a penalty, and are invariably sent off and will receive the minimum of a one match suspension. If as an outfield player you save a certain goal with your hands you are likely to suffer the same fate.
In athletics if you break before the gun your are disqualified.
In Rugby if you tackle high, or take a player out in the air, you concede a penalty and are likely to be sent to the ‘bin’ for ten minutes. South Africans may argue at this point that if you are Owen Farrell these rules don’t apply!
So why is it that currently some in sport feel that punishments handed down to athletes who cheat do not have to stand?
We have seen in recent weeks after Australia’s cricketers had been outplayed by Pakistan a cry, not from the players themselves, for the three players suspended for using sandpaper in Cape Town to have their suspensions shortened and be welcomed back into the national team. The Public were divided, but many felt that they suspensions should stand.
However, worse than this was the news last month that Russia would be re-instated into International competition following their suspension after it was uncovered that the country had a vast state-sponsored drug doping programme in place.
Sir Craig Reedie President of the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) defended his organisation’s decision with the weak ‘what in practice is the alternative?’
The claim has been that WADA weakened in the hope that it will be given access to 2800 samples currently in a Moscow lab, that they can analyse further, which may help in the detection of other drug cheats.
The situation was probably best summed up by his predecessor as the Chair of WADA, David Howman who was quoted as saying, “WADA has gone from being an organisation that cared about clean athletes to one that cares about International Federations that have not been able to stage events in Russia: It’s money over principle.”
Sadly this comes as no surprise. Rumours of high profile athletes testing positive but the tests being hushed up have abounded for years, as these athletes are vital to ticket sales and TV Viewing figures. However WADA was set up to rise above politics, marketing requirements and all other outside influences.
WADA was set up in November 1999 and was supposed to clean up sport. It was created to ensure that if you were going to win at all costs, you were going to win clean or it would cost you.
Yet in 18 years it has failed to keep apace with those developing high performance drugs and has according to many ‘flatlined.’ Yet Reedie claimed recently that WADA is “stronger and more effective than it has ever been.” If that were truly the case why would you welcome Russia back into the fold so soon?
Now there are questions as to whether it is WADA or Reedie that is out of touch.
Beckie Scott who was chair of the WADA Athlete committee resigned from her position over the Russian decision. The former Cross Country skiing Champion went out swinging, claiming that she was bullied by senior officials over her decision to oppose Russia’s re-admission, and she claimed that this was “indicative of a general attitude of dismissal and belittling of the athlete voice.”
In the last 48 hours WADA has brought more scorn upon its self with a proposed age minimum for candidates wishing to stand for President of the organisation. Such a move, if approved, will eliminate the Athlete’s choice to be the next president. The list of guidelines under consideration include a requirement that any candidate to replace Craig Reedie must be at least 45. Reedie’s term as President expires next year.
It should come as no surprise that WADA has claimed that the proposed changes did not come from their leadership, but from representatives of the international governments. International Governments that provide half the agency’s funding.
“Neither Wada’s leadership nor its management was involved or consulted in any way in the drafting of this document,” spokesman James Fitzgerald was quoted as saying. “Any suggestion to the contrary is simply untrue.”
So National sporting associations want to compete in Russia, The athletes do not want to compete against Russia because they have been found to be cheating. WADA has suspended Russia. Said Sporting Association goes to their Government and advises them they must compete against Russia, they have to for financial reasons. So the Government then goes to WADA. WADA agree to their wishes, but at the same time want to make sure that there is no back-flip on this decision. That could be embarrassing to the organisation, and also call more angst. So that is why it is vital that there is no change at the top.
Not surprisingly one of those who spoke out against the re-instatement of Russia was current Vice President 41-year-old Linda Helleland of Norway, who, yes you guessed it has emerged as a favourite among athletes for the Presidency. Hence the proposal to change the requirements?
Who has ever heard of age being a barrier? Surely if you are good enough you are old enough; again a line used frequently in sport.
Marjorie Gestring won gold in the 1936 games in diving at the age of just 13. Gymnast Nadia Comaneci won Gold in 1976 in Montreal aged 14. Tara Lipinski became the youngest Winter Olympian to win individual gold when she won Gold at Nagano in 1988. Sun Shuwei took home gold in the 10-meter platform diving event in Barcelona 1992, he was just 16 years of age.
Outside of sport in 2017 Austria and New Zealand voted for two leaders in their 30’s to lead their nations. Austria’s Sebastian Kurz was 31 when he became Chancellor of Austria and New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern was 37 when she became Prime Minister of New Zealand. Emmanuel Macron was 39 when he was elected President of France. So why suddenly does an organisation like WADA need an age limit?
WADA was supposed to give sports fans hope that the sport they watched was clean. That they could trust the winners had won fairly. Yet how can the public and sponsors be expected to believe in WADA when it appears that even its biggest decisions are being influenced from ‘outside.’ That some of those entrusted with cleaning up World sport are making decisions motivated by issues which have nothing to do with clean competition.
There was a wonderful line written recently which said “huge numbers of sports fans are now facing critical levels of audience disbelief.”
What with match-fixing scandals, doping, and the influence of betting, many fans are questioning the validity of the sport that they are paying either a television subscription to watch, or vast sums to attend live.
Athletics credibility has been destroyed in recent times with athletes who have been caught cheating serving minimal suspensions and coming back into the fray. Their performances still remaining questionable. Which means that the drama of sport, which is why we all watch, has been shattered. There are no longer any fairytales, just suspicion and supposition.
Cricket, especially in the shorter forms of the game has also lost a great deal of credibility as fans become aware of the spot betting available on matches, and how easily events can be influenced.
So if those who are there to police sport for us fail in their duty, if they lift sanctions for any other reason than evidence being brought forward to show the original suspension was wrong, is there any wonder fans start to turn their backs on sport? Of course it is not just fans, sponsors too are beginning to question being associated with sports, athletes and organisations.
Just as we see in a game players that are sin-binned do not come back on after five minutes of their ten minute suspension, because the referee has been told the President of that club wants to see his star player play. They do the crime they serve the time.
Of course there have been a few instants where the players were bigger than the game. The Victorian Cricketer WG Grace it has famously been claimed replaced the bails after being bowled. ‘Play on,’ it is claimed that Grace said ‘they’ve come here to see me bat, not you umpire.’ On Wednesday, 17 July 1968, when Brazilian club Santos, played a friendly match against the Colombian national side in Bogota the great Pele playing for Santos was shown a red card for arguing over a decision by referee Guiilermo Velasquez. As Pele left the pitch shouting that the referee was mad, the crowd started to chant his name. This prompted the Colombian football association to make a unique and unprecedented decision in the history of football, they ordered Pele to return to the field and Velasquez to leave it!
These are rare moments in sport. In the main sport must stick to its guns. If you do the crime you serve the time, and everyone must be aware of that, individuals and National Associations. This must happen across the board, and the “time” must be a serious deterrent, and not just a slap on the wrist. The minute weakness is shown there will be too many who will seek to take advantage. At this point in time sport cannot afford to be weak with those who chose to cheat. The whole sporting contest is built upon all things being even, a fair contest. If fans lose complete faith in that, professional sport as a contest is dead.
