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
A rural Indian police force has cracked a criminal match-fixing ring that staged a T-20 competition at a village in India, which was then broadcast through social media as if it was being held in Sri Lanka. The criminals booked the Storer Cricket Academy ground in Swara between 29...
The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) has questioned the motives behind the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and Russian Paralympic Committee’s (RPC) decision to publish a 55 page audit marked as strictly confidential. The ROC and RPC published the audit, alleging financial irregularities at RUSADA, after Yuri Ganus (Ю́рий Га́нус), RUSADA’s...
The former Vice President of the Sartiglia Foundation, a coach and five equestrian athletes have been sanctioned with four year bans, after an investigation by Italy’s national anti-doping organisation (NADO Italia) found arrangements for other people to provide doping samples during a 2019 event. It is understood that such...
The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) have said that an audit has uncovered financial irregularities at the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA). ‘Contrary to the claims of the Director General of RUSADA at his press conference on 10 July 2020, the in-depth audit revealed a...
UK Sport tested an experimental drink on 91 athletes in eight sports ahead of the London 2012 Olympics in an attempt to boost medal prospects, a Mail on Sunday investigation has found. UK Sport has admitted that it gave ketone esters to athletes before a developmental drink became commercially...
• A total of 269 suspicious alerts were reported to members of the Global Lotteries Monitoring System (GLMS) during the first half of 2020, the body’s Mid Term Report reveals. The vast majority involved football (197 or 73% of the total). Of the total, 199 were reported to members...
Yuri Ganus (Ю́рий Га́нус), Director General of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), has denied allegations that he misappropriated the agency’s funds, after Russian news agencies reported allegations made via social media. In a media conference on Friday (video below – in Russian followed by English), Ganus said that the...
A Report (PDF below) from the Human Rights Council has urged United Nations (UN) member States to ‘prohibit the enforcement of regulations that pressure athletes to undergo unnecessary medical interventions as a precondition for participation in sport’. World Athletics’ Eligibility Rules for the Female Classification (Athletes with Differences of...
Leading Russian athletes are considering changing citizenship, after World Athletics put the Authorised Neutral Athlete (ANA) approval process on hold until its 29/30 July Council meeting, where it will decide what action to take over the Russian Athletics Federation’s (RusAF) failure to pay a US$6.31 million fine. Anzhelika Sidorova...
The 2019 Annual Report of the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) indicates that at least two thirds of domestic adverse analytical findings (AAFs – or ‘positive tests’) resulted in an anti-doping rule violation (ADRV). Also, the reported AAF and ADRV figures don’t appear to add up, but this may be...
• British gymnasts have told Sky Sports News that emotional and physical abuse are common, and that British Gymnastics didn’t take complaints about welfare issues seriously. The allegations include inappropriate analysis of the physique of gymnasts, such as getting peers to offer comment; threats to remove mobile phones due...
Most elite athletes know that if you commit three ‘whereabouts failures’ (any combination of three ‘missed tests’ or ‘filing failures’ within a year), you will be sanctioned with a two year ban. However, recent jurisprudence has demonstrated that if sport doesn’t believe your explanation for ‘missed tests’ or ‘filing...
The Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF) has missed a deadline to pay a US$5 million fine to World Athletics, arguing that it doesn’t have the money. As such, it is likely that the Authorised Neutral Athlete (ANA) process could be suspended. The ANA process allows Russians untouched by doping to...
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. As last week illustrated, Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Motion increasingly appears to be playing out in anti-doping. Whilst some of its criticisms were misguided, the general message from an 18 page US Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Report...
• Barry Fudge will step down as British Athletics’ Head of Endurance at the end of June. “It’s a difficult time for the performance team and the sport as a whole, but it has been great to see British Athletics use the opportunity to push on with recruiting the...
