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
Sun Yang assisted a security guard to use a hammer to smash a glass container containing two blood samples using the torch on his mobile phone, allowing his doctor to retain the blood vials, the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s (CAS) Decision (PDF below) in his case reveals. The...
A joint investigation by Europol, Spain’s Guardia Civil and the Spanish tax agency has uncovered that football agents were organising fictitious transfers of players through a Cypriot club in order to launder money and evade taxes. Spanish authorities have charged Abdilgafar Fali Ramadani, who operates Lian Sports, and his...
The cost of securing an anti-doping rule violation (ADRV) in the UK has increased from £194,400 during 2017/18 to £210,300, analysis of UK Anti-Doping’s (UKAD) 2018/19 annual report (PDF below) has revealed. During the 2018/19 year, UKAD published 24 ADRV decisions, up from 23 during the previous year. The...
Sun Yang is to appeal an eight year ban issued by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which upheld an appeal from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) against the international swimming federation’s (FINA) decision not to sanction him for refusing sample collection, due to testing procedures not being...
• Amateur cyclist Flavio Pagliaccia has been sanctioned with a twelve year ban after returning an adverse analytical finding (AAF) for a metabolite of cocaine after competing whilst provisionally suspended. Pagliaccia was provisionally suspended after returning an AAF for testosterone in April last year, and in October was sanctioned...
The Sports Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA) will ask sport’s stakeholders to contribute a percentage of their revenues to an independently managed sports integrity fund, designed to finance anti-corruption, confirmed the organisation’s CEO, Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros. A SIGA statement announced that the sporting industry and judicial system had backed...
Mo Farah denied receiving L-Carnitine injections in a four hour interview with investigators from the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), but immediately returned to admit receiving such injections after meeting Barry Fudge, Head of Endurance at UK Athletics, outside. BBC Panorama also obtained emails which it alleges show that Fudge...
• Italian police have confiscated Alexander Loginov’s (Александр Логинов) phone and laptop as part of an investigation into alleged anti-doping rule violations (ADRV), the Russian biathlete has told Russia Today. Loginov said that a police raid, which took place at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Championships on Saturday,...
Swiss cyclist Pirmin Lang has retired from professional road cycling after admitting involvement in the Operation Aderlass blood doping network, following enquiries from Swiss journalists. ‘I cheated through my professional career’, wrote Lang in a Twitter statement (below). ‘I was part of the “Aderlass” network. I lied and am...
• The World Boxing Council (WBC) has confirmed that analysis of Alejandra Jimenez’s B sample has confirmed an adverse analytical finding (AAF) for stanozolol, detected in her A sample last month. Jimenez questioned the AAF, which occurred on 10 January before she defeated Franchon Crews-Dezurn to take the World...
• A Confederation of African Football (CAF) Executive Committee meeting has dismissed ‘unfounded allegations’ contained in a Report produced by PricewaterhouseCooopers (PwC), however a statement released after the meeting doesn’t dismiss any of the allegations from the Report. Instead, it defends alleged use of FIFA funds for funerals; explains...
Fabricio Quirós and Orlando Quesada have been provisionally suspended after reporting adverse analytical findings (AAFs) at the Costa Rica Vuelta Ciclística Internacional 2019, the national anti-doping commission (CONAD-CR) announced (click here to download). Quirós finished seventh in the general classification after winning Stage Nine of the race. Quesada finished...
• The International Biathlon Union (IBU) confirmed it has charged Russian former biathlete Evgeny Ustyugov with a violation of its anti-doping rules based on abnormalities in his Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) detected from January 2010 to February 2014. Ustyugov won gold medals at the 2010 Vancouver and 2014 Sochi...
Triathlete Florian Lienhart has been sanctioned with a four year ban after testing positive for erythropoietin (EPO), and due to evidence obtained during the Operation Aderlass investigation into the customers of Dr. Mark Schmidt. A statement (click here to download) from the Austrian anti-doping rights commission (ÖADR) outlined that...
The international swimming federation (FINA) has sanctioned Rūta Meilutytė with a two year ban for three ‘whereabouts’ failures in a 12 month period. The FINA Doping Panel Decision (PDF below) indicates that FINA’s requirement to charge the Lithuanian, who is understood to have fought depression, may have contributed to...
