Bonn bids to crack down on doping in EU sports

Date: 21/01/1999

By Peter Chapman

GERMANY has unveiled plans for new EU-wide rules to crack down on the use of performance-enhancing drugs amid growing concern that the problem is tarnishing the image of European sport.

The initiative launched by German Interior Minister Otto Schily this week follows calls at last December's summit of Union leaders in Vienna for action following a spate of high-profile doping cases.

Bonn plans to use its presidency of the EU to highlight the issue and intends to table its proposal formally at a high-level gathering of International Olympic Committee (IOC) representatives in Lausanne, Switzerland, early next month.

"A lot of major competitions are held in Europe," Schily told European Voice. "We need them and that is why we need to preserve the effectiveness of sport."

The move comes in the wake of a catalogue of cases which have captured headlines across Europe, including the expulsion of the Festina team from the 1998 Tour de France and the four-year ban imposed on Olympic gold-medal winning Irish swimmer Michelle Smith De Bruin for tampering with a urine sample.

Schily's proposals, which won the support of other EU sports ministers at a meeting in Bonn this week, would force sports authorities in the Union to set common standards and penalties for breaches of doping rules. This would iron out the wide differences in the strict rules governing tennis players and swimmers and the laxer regime for football or snooker players in some countries.

Some ministers have threatened to withdraw subsidies if sporting federations fail to toe the line.

Schily said IOC plans for a new international agency to agree common doping rules throughout the sporting world had also been welcomed by ministers at the Bonn meeting. "We agreed that we need an independent and transparent agency for anti-doping and that it is necessary to combine the sports associations and states' activities," he said.

The new agency would be tasked with drawing up general definitions of what can be classed as doping and coming up with a list of outlawed substances.

Drugs currently banned by the IOC watchdog include many stimulants, anabolic agents, diuretics and hormones as well as narcotics. Products which are permitted include the pain-killers aspirin and ibuprofen, some antacids and all antibiotics. Although marijuana is not outlawed by the Olympic Committee, it is not only illegal in most countries but is also on the banned list of many national federations.

Schily said the new agency would have to cover many sports which the IOC does not currently regulate, including soccer, which is policed by the Federation of International Football Associations.

The problems this can cause were highlighted in the US when its highest-scoring baseball player, Mark McGwire, admitted to taking a hormone supplement banned by the Olympic federation but allowed by the baseball league.

The minister said governments and sports associations must agree on a common list of substances to be banned, including those which affect health as well as those which hinder fair competition by giving athletes an advantage "mentally or physically" against non-doped opponents.

"It is difficult to draw this borderline," he admitted. "Coffee, tea, alcohol and so on can all be considered to affect the athlete in one way or another."

Schily, a renowned defence lawyer before he entered politics, has invited EU sports ministers and federations to attend a conference in Paderborn in May at which Culture Commissioner Marcelino Oreja will be asked to outline any legal hurdles which might have to be overcome in pushing through the anti-doping reforms.

Commission officials stress that it is essential to make dope tests and sanctions legally watertight and less open to court challenges. In a recent high-profile case, British middle-distance runner Diane Modahl overturned a four-year ban after she claimed tests at a Portuguese laboratory had been at fault.