Andy has been writing about the governance of sport for over 15 years. Prior to working on the Sports Integrity Initiative, he was the editor of World Sports Law Report for eight years. He has also worked for the Press Association and has written for numerous trade magazines. He has also created, chaired and spoken at numerous conferences on the business of sport, and produced the Sports Law Show for iSportConnect TV.
All posts by Andy Brown
• Raúl Alarcón has been sanctioned with a four year ban expiring on 20 October 2023, the international cycling union’s (UCI) updated list of sanctions reveals. In October 2019, the Spanish cyclist revealed that he had been provisionally suspended by the UCI, but claimed that he was innocent of...
Andrea Marcialis (pictured), an Italian horse owner and trainer already serving a six month suspension, now faces being banned from the sport until April 2025 after France Galop found him guilty of offences including administering substances to horses in violation of the rules. In a Decision announced yesterday, it...
• Andrea Antoni has been provisionally suspended after returning an adverse analytical finding (AAF) for recombinant erythropoietin (EPO), testosterone and its metabolites, Italy’s national anti-doping agency (NADO Italia) announced. The amateur cyclist returned his AAF at the ‘7th Trofeo Paradise’ in Monsano on 7 February. Mattia Marcelli was also...
The Bulgarian swimming federation’s (BFPS) plan to discover how three young swimmers reported anti-doping rule violations (ADRVs) for stanozolol has been criticised by the coach of one of the swimmers. On 4 March, the BFPS announced that: • all supplements given to swimmers at training camps in January and...
Vitaly and Yuliya Stepanov (Виталий Степанов & Ю́лия Степанова), who helped expose Russian State doping, have launched legal action with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, alleging that Russia’s operation of a State doping programme violated their human rights. Stepanov, a former employee of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency...
• Team Haas’s new Formula 1 car, unveiled following a sponsorship deal with Russian potash fertiliser company Uralkali, has highlighted how issues may arise in interpreting the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s (CAS) prohibition on displaying the Russian flag, but permitting use of its colours. The front wings of...
• Student and youth athletes were used as guinea pigs by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in order to develop State Plan 14.25, which involved administration of performance enhancing drugs to elite athletes, a documentary (below) has discovered. Student athletes such as Hans Albrecht-Kühne testify that they have suffered...
Nelly Jepkosgei has been sanctioned with a three year ban for tampering with doping control procedures. The Bahraini athlete, who was born in Kenya and lives there, initially claimed that the reason for a Missed Test on 18 March last year was a car crash involving her sister. She...
A recording obtained by bTV appears to feature Georgi Avramchev (Георги Аврамчев), Chairman of the the Bulgarian swimming federation (BFPS), telling three young swimmers that he would have protected them from tests if he knew there was a danger that they would report adverse analytical findings (AAFs). As previously...
The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) has announced that five weightlifters from three countries have been provisionally suspended, due to adverse analytical findings (AAFs) for prohibited substances. Oxana Slivenko (Оксана Сливенко), who won Gold in the -69kg category at the Beijing 2008 Olympics after Liu Chunhong (刘春红) was disqualified for...
Four FC Barcelona officials have been arrested after searches conducted in five locations in order to gather information as part of a year long investigation into ‘alleged crimes related to property and socio-economic order’, Catalonian police announced yesterday. A club statement said that that police action was related to...
Stephen Griffin, former CEO of Legacy Global Sports, has urged football’s governing bodies to act after former Executives of subsidiary Global Premier Soccer (GPS) pleaded guilty to a US visa fraud scheme. Legacy Global Sports was a sports management company focussing mainly on US youth sports, including organising travel...
Russian ice hockey player Artemi Panarin (Арте́мий Пана́рин), who has previously been critical of Russia’s governance, posted his support for Vladimir Putin’s (Владимир Путин) political opponent Alexei Navalny (Алексей Навальный) on Instagram on 21 January. On 22 February, his former Coach alleged that in 2011, Latvian police had been...
• Turkish wrestler Ufuk Yilmaz will receive a Gold medal in the +90kg category from the Qatar 2019 World Beach Games after the original winner, Pouya Rahmani of Iran, was disqualified for an anti-doping rule violation (ADRV) involving stanozolol. Bulgarian Wrestler Miglena Selishka will receive a Silver medal in...
Three young members of the Bulgarian swimming team who reported adverse analytical findings (AAFs) for stanozolol, have claimed that they were given pills by the national swimming federation. Zdravko Bablakov (Здравко Баблаков), Svetlozar Nikolov (Светлозар Николов), and Blagoy Panayotov (Благой Панайотов) were provisionally suspended yesterday, the country’s anti-doping agency...
