UNITED KINGDOM: World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) Director General David Howman says a quarter of world sport is controlled by criminals

Record ID: 644024

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) Director General David Howman says a quarter of world sport is controlled by criminals
  • Date: 12th February 2013
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (FEBRUARY 12, 2013) (REUTERS) DAVID HOWMAN, WADA DIRECTOR GENERAL, BEING INTERVIEWED CAMERA SOUNDBITE (English) WADA DIRECTOR GENERAL DAVID HOWMAN SAYING: "I think about 25 percent of world sport is now controlled to one degree or another by the underworld. And I am making that statement based on information I have received, it is not a guess, and it is probably even higher and as we go on I think you will see that increase." DAVID HOWMAN BEING INTERVIEWED SOUNDBITE (English) WADA DIRECTOR GENERAL DAVID HOWMAN SAYING: "The same bad guys pushing the drugs, laundering their money through regular betting, illegal betting, bribery, corruption, it is not a phenomenon that is just one group over here and one group over there, it is the same jokers." DAVID HOWMAN BEING INTERVIEWED SOUNDBITE (English) WADA DIRECTOR GENERAL DAVID HOWMAN SPEAKING ABOUT DOPERS BEING ONE STEP AHEAD, SAYING: "There is a danger that because the criminal underworld is involved they have got a lot of money to throw at the issue. More than then good guys will throw at the issue, you have got to have that balance, therefore you have to be smarter, and to be smarter, you have to think like bad guys and anticipate things that are going on. That sometimes is quite difficult for people with good values and background. I can think like that and I am trying to train my team to think that way." DAVID HOWMAN BEING INTERVIEWED SOUNDBITE (English) WADA DIRECTOR GENERAL DAVID HOWMAN, ASKED WHETHER LANCE ARMSTRONG'S CONFESSION MARKS A SEA CHANGE IN THE FIGHT AGAINST PERFORMANCE-ENHANCING DRUGS, SAYS: "Look, it is momentary and life at the present is reality TV, essentially 24 hours, so there will be another controversy in a week's time and all of a sudden we will start forgetting Lance Armstrong. We have got to be realistic, it does give people an opportunity to build on the way in which we are trying to find out who is cheating or not, and the way in which the high and mighty can fall. So cheating goes on everywhere, we are now aware of it, the seven times tour champion, it can happen everywhere, what we really want to do is make sure it doesn't happen in other sports." SOUNDBITE (English) WADA DIRECTOR GENERAL DAVID HOWMAN, SPEAKING ON THE WAY AHEAD FOR UCI'S INVESTIGATION INTO CULTURE OF DOPING IN CYCLING, SAYING: "I think an independent commission, which we would never call a truth and reconciliation, because it hasn't got the right connotations from our perspective, following the code, granting appropriate qualified immunity to those who would come forward, wouldn't risk their employment, wouldn't risk being sued and all that sort of thing, that could be done, but it would have to be done by people who were totally independent." DAVID HOWMAN BEING INTERVIEWED SOUNDBITE (English) WADA DIRECTOR GENERAL DAVID HOWMAN, SPEAKING ABOUT TEAM SPORTS NEEDING TO INCREASE BATTLE AGAINST DOPING, SAYING: "I think they can step up. Look it is a big issue in team sports because you have so many in a squad, but if you can play a whole career at elite level without being tested once then there is an is a big issue. So we have got to think of some way that team sport can combat that issue, aerogramme which leads to a better outcome. MLB is setting quite a good example of what they are doing with their collective agreement every player on the roster of a major league team gets tested four times a year for urine, one and a half times, and I don't know how they get the half, for blood and what we are working with them to make sure that programme is a quality one and not just a numbers game but if you transfer that into some of the very highly paid football leagues for example, that might be a better way of showing that you are addressing the issue." DAVID HOWMAN BEING INTERVIEWED
  • Embargoed: 27th February 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVAEKX8U13ZZQTDIHGU5UFEMD7XA
  • Story Text: A quarter of world sport is under the influence of criminal organisations, World Anti Doping Agency director general David Howman said on Tuesday (February 12).
    Speaking to Reuters Television during a media day at Heathrow airport, Howman added that the problems of doping in sport were closely tied to corruption and bribery.
    In recent months, the world of sport has been rocked by a number of allegations of top athletes taking drugs, and others being involved in match fixing.
    Lance Armstrong's confession to using performance enhancing substances has left cycling under scrutiny, while this week Australian sport has been strongly linked to doping products supplied by criminal gangs.
    Last week, Europol, the European anti crime agency, suggested that nearly 400 soccer matches across the world had been fixed in one form or another by criminal gangs.
    "I think about 25 percent of world sport is now controlled to one degree or another by the underworld," said Howman. "And I am making that statement based on information I have received, it is not a guess, and it is probably even higher and as we go on I think you will see that increase."
    He went to explain where he sees the links: "The same bad guys pushing the drugs, laundering their money through regular betting, illegal betting, bribery, corruption, it is not a phenomenon that is just one group over here and one group over there, it is the same jokers."
    Because of the involvement of such criminal gangs, Howman admitted that it was difficult to stay ahead of drug takers, as they are, potentially, better resourced than those trying to catch them.
    That meant, he said, WADA and local doping enforcement agencies had to think like criminals in order to catch them.
    "There is a danger that because the criminal underworld is involved, they have got a lot of money to throw at the issue, more than then good guys will throw at the issue," he said.
    "Therefore you have to be smarter and to be smarter you have to think like bad guys and anticipate things that are going on. That sometimes is quite difficult for people with good values and background. I can think like that and I am trying to train my team to think that way."
    With Armstrong finally confessing to doping, and a host of other cyclists both pre-empting him and following in his wake, some have speculated that his downfall could be a key date on the timeline in the battle against performance enhancing drugs.
    Howman warned that it would be unwise to read too much into it, but welcomed the message it would send out to those tempted to seek a similar unfair advantage.
    "Look, it is momentary and life at the present is reality TV, essentially 24 hours, so there will be another controversy in a week's time and all of a sudden we will start forgetting Lance Armstrong," he said.
    "We have got to be realistic, it does give people an opportunity to build on the way in which we are trying to find out who is cheating or not, and the way in which the high and mighty can fall so cheating goes on everywhere, we are now aware of it, the seven times tour champion, it can happen everywhere, what we really want to do is make sure it doesn't happen in other sports."
    Earlier on Tuesday, WADA president John Fahey said that he had received correspondence from cycling's governing body, the UCI, attempting once more to set up an inquiry into the culture of doping that seems to have dominated the sport in the last two decades at least.
    Despite a number of differences of opinion between WADA and the UCI in recent weeks over the format of such an inquiry, Howman said that his organisation was keen to find common ground, but laid out the terms on which any investigation would have to proceed.
    "I think an independent commission, which we would never call a truth and reconciliation, because it hasn't got the right connotations from our perspective, following the code, granting appropriate qualified immunity to those who would come forward, wouldn't risk their employment, wouldn't risk being sued and all that sort of thing, that could be done, but it would have to be done by people who were totally independent," he said.
    Last week Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said soccer had to do more to combat the dangers of players taking performance enhancing drugs.
    Although Howman said that soccer did not have a specific problem, he argued that team sports may have to do more in the future to ensure their respective houses are in order.
    "I think they can step up," he said of team sports in general.
    "Look it is a big issue in team sports because you have so many in a squad, but if you can play a whole career at elite level without being tested once then there is a big issue.
    "So we have got to think of some way that team sport can combat that issue, a programme which leads to a better outcome. Major League Baseball is setting quite a good example of what they are doing with their collective agreement.
    "Every player on the roster of a major league team gets tested four times a year for urine, one and a half times, and I don't know how they get the half, for blood, and what we are working with them to make sure that programme is a quality one and not just a numbers game.
    "But if you transfer that into some of the very highly paid football leagues for example, that might be a better way of showing that you are addressing the issue."
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