Am I alone in thinking that Alberto Contador’s treatment has been disgraceful?
One the one hand I have every sympathy with Contador, simply on the length of time these beurocrats take to reach a decision.
It should not , and must not take 6 months of speculation.
There must be a thorough investigation, but the federations must gear up to do that in a matter of a couple of weeks, so that no sooner the announcement of the doping than the announcement of the decision if anything.
The beurocrats have safe jobs. It makes no difference to them, whether it takes a month or a year. But how can Riis and Saxobank function, not knowing even as late as february who his star rider will be?
The delay means those running the sport, operate in complete indifference to how it actually functions.
On the other hand the federation itself has given a decision of a one year ban which means nothing. You cannot be “a little bit” pregnant.
Either they judge a doping offence was committed on the basis of rules and evidence to hand, in which case a 2 year ban is mandatory.
Or they judge that there was no case to answer.
In which case he should be treated as innocent.
This “half way house” of one year ban does yet more to damage the reputation of the sport.
It is also highlights the stupidity of a system, just like the one in athletics, where the central agency uses local federations to fire the bullets for it, it decides the “right” decision and overrules federations if they disagree.
Nonsense. Either the UCI should be responsible or the federations. Take your pick.
In athletics it became clear why the two tier structure existed as long ago as Butch Reynolds and Diane Modahl. The central agency wanted to take the decisions, but not be the ones to face compensation fines from legal action.
All that is needed is:
A set of rules strictly adhered. A process operating in at most a couple of months, with a clear chain of authority.
To watchers of the Rasmussen affair it seemed as though he faced double jeopardy, with separate international and federation doping controls, without which he would not have missed too many tests.
And whilst no support of drug offences, the rules should be the rules At the end of the ban, that should be the end.
Rasmussen has served his time, so the present treatment of Rasmussen by the DK federation is completely unnacceptable.
