The Lance Armstrong Case: The Story Continues

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Court of Arbitration for Sport
We have received several comments from our readers and requests for clarification in relation to our previous post, regarding the decision by USADA to apply sanctions on Lance Armstrong. Some readers misinterpreted our position, mainly because of its emotive stance. You must appreciate that this blog does not take sides, but seeks to establish the truth and to offer a pragmatic view and opinion on all sports law developments. Similarly, our previous post did not have as an aim to examine whether Lance Armstrong committed the alleged offences or not. Instead, it had as an aim to establish whether the anti-doping organisation in question has the power and jurisdiction to apply sanctions on the athlete.

We appreciate that some people felt that our response against USADA was emotive and rather harsh. If our readers attempt to carefully examine our previous post, they would come to the conclusion that we are in a position to appreciate the politics behind any decision making in sport. We used the example with the Greek Sprinters case to demonstrate the well-defined attempts by sporting governing bodies to abuse their power and ignore important procedural aspects.

As argued above, we are not here to pass judgement on Lance Armstrong, although we felt, because of our experience in similar matters, that he needs to be afforded all rights that are enshrined in the regulatory framework of the sport, as well as in several national and international statutory instruments. The guilt or innocence of Lance Armstrong should be determined in front of properly constituted forums and  after all appropriate procedural matters have been followed [The point has already been stated in an interview with the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/19413613 ].

The undersigned has repeated several times that this 'guilty until proven innocent' approach in sport must be eliminated. The special nature of sport does not offer sporting governing bodies immunisation from judicial intervention. We shall continue to apply these checks in the balance of power and we will continue to advocate in favour of fairness and equality in all procedural aspects in sport.

We must emphasise again that the present case is not about the guilt or innocence of the athlete. It is about the correct application of rules and procedure. Since our last post, we have been instructed to advise a certain party in this case and we will, therefore, refrain from raising any legal matters, so confidentiality could be observed.

We remain, however, committed to the application of transparent procedures, which would then offer equality and fairness to those who are affected by the several issues in the case. Once procedural fairness is observed, the appropriate forums should be in a position to examine the allegations and the evidence and decide accordingly. It is only when the evidence is presented before an independent and properly constituted Panel, that justice and fairness in sport could prevail.

Dr. Gregory Ioannidis

1 September 2012

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