BOA Going to CAS was Waste of Time & Moneys says WADA Director

WADA director general David Howman belives Britain should have complied with the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) global doping code and not wasted time and money by appealing in vain to the Court of Arbitration for Sport,  following Mondays decision to overtun the British Olympic Association’s (BOA) bylaw.

The BOA asked CAS to mediate after WADA ruled the sanction did not comply with its code which provides for a maximum two-year ban for a first offence.

CAS had ruled in October that an International Olympic Committee (IOC) rule similar to the BOA’s, excluding athletes banned for six months or more from the next Olympics, amounted to a second sanction. The IOC accepted the CAS ruling and nullified its law.

Howman said the BOA should have then also fallen in line without going to CAS.

“They decided not to do anything about it and leave it to our board and our board made that decision (that the BOA’s doping policy was non-compliant),” Howman told Reuters by telephone from Sydney.

“Then they had the right to appeal and they exercised it. Right throughout that time there was an opportunity to say, ‘let’s not waste a lot of money, time and energy on doing this, let’s get on and be sensible and realistic and change the rule, and they chose not to.

“They have got to answer to their stakeholders on that. We are talking about, I assume, hundreds of thousands of pounds at a time when the world economy is such. We couldn’t really afford that sort of money. We had to because we had to defend the position of the board.”

BOA chairman Colin Moynihan declared his association deeply disappointed by the CAS ruling and vowed to keep fighting for stricter sanctions in future.

Howman said CAS’s ruling was “no surprise to anybody” and urged the BOA to “move on”.

“At the end of the day, let’s get back to the principles,” Howman added.

“The code is there because the world wanted everybody to have the same set of rules. Now the BOA is aware that their rule is an extra sanction and not in line, they have got the opportunity of changing their rules and working together.”

Howman said it was “unfair” of Moynihan to call it a “hollow victory” for WADA.

“The court found, on my reading of it, very little to give the BOA in terms of the appeal. From our perspective, process was followed… they had the right to appeal, now they have lost it.”