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
• Two officials have been arrested on suspicion of corruption that may have enabled Sporting Lisbon to win the Portuguese 2016/17 handball title, reports Correio da Manha. The newspaper reported that following a raid on 16 March, police discovered that officials had bribed referees and paid other teams to...
The UK Government has again clarified that it will not ‘revisit’ the issue of whether doping in sport should be criminalised, its its response to the Combatting Doping in Sport Report (PDF below) released by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee of the UK Parliament on 5...
An internal World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Investigation Report, illegally obtained by Fancy Bears and emailed to The Sports Integrity Initiative, suggests that two Directors of the Romanian Doping Control Laboratory concealed two positive tests. The Report also found that the Romanian Laboratory had no reliable method for detecting the...
On 14 May, the US Supreme Court ruled (PDF below) that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), which prohibited all but four States from regulating sports betting, is unconstitutional. As any gambling operator seeking to offer odds on US sports in the future will need accurate match...
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the Fonds de recherche du Québec (FRQ) this week signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which will yield CAD 2 million to focus on advanced areas of anti-doping scientific research. Under the terms of the MOU, WADA and the FRQ agree to contribute CAD...
• The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has rejected a joint appeal by Munir El Haddadi and the Moroccan football association (FRMF) against a 13 March FIFA decision to reject an application to change the FC Barcelona player’s nationality from Spanish to Moroccan. It is understood that FIFA...
A plea bargain agreed by Carlos Emanuel Miranda alleges that a bribe paid to former International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) President Lamine Diack secured four votes in favour of Rio’s bid to host the Rio 2016 Olympics, reports Flora de Sao Paolo. Miranda is suspected of managing corrupt...
• Racing Victoria has confirmed that triamcinolone acetonide has been detected in a blood sample taken from Integrated, a racehorse trained by Logan McGill. The body’s Appeals and Disciplinary Board (RAD) also recently announced three life bans; and bans of four, three and two years for those implicated in...
The Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF) has disqualified four athletes who tested positive for turinabol through the retesting of previous samples. Yelena Slesurenko (Елена Слесаренко), who won high jump gold in the 2004 Athens Olympics, was banned for four years from 4 October 2016, after ‘repeated athletes analysis of samples taken...
The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (SKR) said it has sent the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) details of doping tests carried out on 14 athletes at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, which it alleges shows that their samples took between 30 minutes and two hours to process during...
• The Moldovan Prosecutor’s Office for Fighting Crime and Special Causes (PCCOCS) has investigated ‘a football club based in the capital’ which it suspects of tax fraud, it announced. The PCCOCS said that the clubs accounts indicated that it had made 60 million lei (€3 million) in unofficial payments...
The broad message from the Sport Resolutions 2018 conference, which took place in London today, was that sport is improving its regulation of mental health, integrity and inclusion. However, delegates heard that further changes need to be made in all three areas in order to safeguard athlete health and...
Jonathan Taylor QC (pictured), who drafted the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Differences of Sex Development (DSD) Regulations with his colleague Liz Riley at Bird & Bird LLP, is to speak at the Sport Resolutions 2018 Conference in London tomorrow. The Regulations, which were published last week, seek...
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has warned Russian race walkers granted neutral athlete status that their accreditation to compete in international events could be revoked, if they are found to have worked with banned coach Viktor Chegin (pictured). ‘The IAAF’s Doping Review Board (DRB) routinely reserves the...
The Tennis Integrity Review Panel (TIRP) Report, published yesterday (PDF below) highlights that restricting the sale of live data at lower levels matches could be key to preserving the integrity of sport. In raising this issue, the TIRP Report has highlighted a major concern that has been bubbling under...
