As the New Year dawns across the sports integrity world, there are a number of vast zombie organizations staggering across the corporate landscape like half-dead creatures. They have no life, energy or drive. They have given up their fundamental purpose.Their leadership has failed them. They are the institutional living dead. First, let us be fair, … Continue reading Zombie Organizations: Interpol, WADA and now FIFA?
Tag Archives: WADA
The Cold War Spy Games Inside Sports
As the world fixates on Russian spying and cyber-attacks in U.S. politics, the field of sports has been struck by similar intrusions and Canadian athletes and organizations are among the hardest hit. The Montreal-based World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was warned last summer that Russian hackers were trying to breach its computer system, according to security … Continue reading The Cold War Spy Games Inside Sports
Canada’s Pride
Its nice to be able to write a story where the Canadian sports officials are not burying their heads in the sand or passing the hot potato of accountability as quickly as possible. This is an exclusive interview with Richard McLaren, the Canadian sports lawyer who investigated the state-sponsored Russian doping system. It is the … Continue reading Canada’s Pride
The ‘Secret’ Report for WADA
Below is the confidential paper on building an investigative culture in a corrupt sports world that I wrote for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Think Tank held in Lausanne on September 20th. It was supposed to be secret but some craven twit leaked it to his pals in the media within 24-hours of it being … Continue reading The ‘Secret’ Report for WADA
If You Love Sports, Switch Off the Rio Olympics
Ten Points on the Russian Sports Doping Scandal 1. The only way to get clean, dope-free sport is for fans around the world to switch off the Rio de Janeiro Olympics: I do not write this lightly. Nor do I write about the rampant corrupton of the Brazilian construction industry, the potential spread of the … Continue reading If You Love Sports, Switch Off the Rio Olympics
Russian Doping & Fixing: A Normal Way of Business
In the light of Richard McLaren’s report on doping in Russia. Here is a backgrounder from The Fix on corruption in Russian sports. Kaliningrad is a grim, grey city stuck at the far western end of Russia. It is full of crumbling dockyards, high unemployment, and mobsters. The city is an odd outpost of the … Continue reading Russian Doping & Fixing: A Normal Way of Business
Sports and the Russian Mafia
On the news that the Russian track and field athletes are banned from the Rio Olympics. Good decision. Two points, five lessons and the links between sports and the Russian Mafia. The Russian anti-doping system in sport was largely a sham: a Potemkin village of a program designed to give the appearance of an effective … Continue reading Sports and the Russian Mafia
7 lessons from the IAAF and Russian Doping Scandals
So now we know. Now we know that the Russian anti-doping system in sport was largely a sham: a Potemkin village of a program designed to give the appearance of an effective fight but in reality enabling widespread doping among their athletes. Now we know that at the very heart of athleticism and the IAAF … Continue reading 7 lessons from the IAAF and Russian Doping Scandals
10 Thoughts on Sepp Blatter’s Resignation
1- There are lots of people in the FIFA world who are far, far worse than Blatter. 2- It is possible that after the next FIFA election we could wind up with a president who will make us feel nostalgic for Blatter. 3- Blatter and his group at Zurich ran effective protection for national football … Continue reading 10 Thoughts on Sepp Blatter’s Resignation
The Wrong People using the Wrong Tools in the Wrong Way
It is a tale of two reports. The first was released last month by the investigators of the Cycling International Report Commission (CIRI). They examined the actions of Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) who govern elite cycling. Their report is a review of the colossal failure of anti-doping efforts in cycling over the last twenty-years. This … Continue reading The Wrong People using the Wrong Tools in the Wrong Way
