Crisis time for sports

It still seems like only yesterday that the Kiwis were claiming the rugby world title in dominant fashion yet already we are into the middle of European competition.

A week can sometimes seem like a long time in sport, particularly when placed into perspective by world events, yet already England has had the chance to avenge their union disaster with victory over the All Blacks at rugby league.

The opening round of fixtures were given a distorted appearance due to the cancellation of all matches scheduled to be played in France following the atrocities witnessed there over the weekend.

However, with many of the world’s leading union players now plying their trade in the French league – and therefore representing these sides in Europe – ‘La Marseillaise’ still played out defiantly as fixtures across the UK and Ireland still took place.

It would be inconceivable in football for the likes of Barcelona to be paired against Chelsea in the opening fixture yet this was the equivalent with Toulon due to face Bath, yet fans were denied this mouth-watering prospect due to the terrorist acts.

However, there were still some incredible matches, most notably between Saracens and Toulose, where the four-time champions from France were thrashed. England’s Owen Farrell, overlooked for much of the World Cup, was dominant in landing six penalties in the first half alone that led to an incredible 27-0 lead.

While the second half was much more even, possibly thanks to Saracens resting their front row, the score finished 32-7 with the Sarries only regret possibly being their failure to land a bonus point for scoring four tries.

Yet it is Pool 5 that carries the greatest challenge of escape. In addition to Toulon, who acquired Ma’a Nonu, Quade Cooper and Duane Vermeulen to add to Steffon Armitage, Matt Giteau and Bryan Habana, there is also last year’s semi-finalists, Leinster, and Wasps.

The three-time winners, Leinster, were able to welcome back Jonny Sexton, needing a strong start to their campaign to have any hope of qualifying for the next stage. Yet the six points from his boot were all they had to show as Wasps were rampant in securing a massive 33-6 away win.

Another match to catch the eye was the game between two historic heavyweights, Leicester (winners in 2001 and 2002), and Stade Francais (beaten finalists in 2001 and 2005 and French title holders from 2014).

The Tigers had secured an unbeaten start to the Premiership although came unstuck last weekend at Exeter and needed to ‘up the level of intensity’, according to their director of rugby, Richard Cockerill, against the Pool 4 favourites.

However, they got off to the worst possible start, conceding an 8-0 lead, but then started to show the character demanded. They fought back to lead 12-8 at the interval and then dominated the second half to win 33-20.

Leicester look to have made one of the best signings of the summer in acquiring Kiwi Brendon O’Connor, who could qualify for England thanks to an English grandmother. His play was energetic and strong at the breakdown.

Stade, missing some of their marquee names, will be disappointed to have produced a display that was more Inspector Clousseau than Pink Panther that led to them conceding the bonus point.

It is also possible that all of the French teams had their minds elsewhere on a day when sport was put into perspective.

But sport matters. Despite the obvious physical benefits of regular exercise it is used by many for camaraderie, team-building or even as a release from day to day pressures. However it can also be much more than that, building bonds and uniting communities.

Yet there are several sports that are, at the highest level, facing a crisis. The problems at FIFA have been well documented. However, the recent report by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) highlights issues that dwarf the challenges facing football.

Russia, one of the richest and most powerful nations, has been accused of orchestrating a government-sponsored programme of cheating via doping athletes and then covering up adverse results. What makes this worse is that the IAAF is also accused of being complicit in this.

Under the new leadership of Lord Sebastian Coe, the IAAF has now agreed to provisionally suspend Russian athletics, which could mean that they and their athletes are not allowed to compete at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. While nobody expects that to happen (there will be another meeting of the IAAF in Cardiff in March 2016), this step is unprecedented.

Governments have been banned before for interfering in the governance of a sport, although none have been expelled for state-sponsored doping and cheating.

Drug-taking and cover-ups are not new. The biggest scandals have enveloped cycling and baseball, with both taking far too many years to deal with the problem properly, after initially failing to even admit that they had a problem. Both have suffered as a consequence with baseball losing its place at the Olympics and the Tour de France, in particular, still held every year under a shroud of suspicion and accusations.

Indeed baseball (along with softball) became the first sport to be removed from the Olympic programme since polo in 1936 after the drug revelations.

Athletics is arguably the centerpiece of the Olympics. This suspension of Russia is just a start. If this is the tip of the iceberg as has been suggested (Kenya has also been highlighted), athletics may face a similar scenario to baseball where records are marked with an asterisk, acknowledging that doping was so rife.

If the IAAF is found to have been involved in accepting bribes to cover up adverse results there are likely to be other countries identified and also banned.

The new leaders of the IAAF need to quickly establish credibility. To do so they can look to cycling’s governing body, the UCI, for an example. They had a clear-out of the old guard and launched an independent investigation into the historic accusations and penalise the perpetrators. They also need to identify clear and harsh repercussions for other countries caught.

I have heard it suggested that doping should be legalised. I do not believe there could be a more preposterous outcome. That is effectively sending a message that it is acceptable to cheat, at which point it becomes difficult to set any limits whatsoever. Furthermore, it ignores the harmful side effects of doping. While some may argue that these may be justice for those who take the illegal substances I do not believe that they deserve the short-term awards at the cost of pure athletes who test their bodies naturally.

Given the level of government-backed doping I find it difficult to understand how confident the IOC can be that Russia will have sorted itself out in a matter of months.

To deal with this properly there has to be a full and frank disclosure of those that have cheated which means identifying the athletes concerned and meting out punishments.

The great difficulty will be in knowing who are the clean athletes from these countries and allowing either their records to stand or, looking forward, allowing them to compete.

Many of these sports have suffered due to a failure of individuals to speak out or, where they have, for governing bodies failing to react.

Sports have suffered under the argument that ‘this is how we have always done it’ as a result of the fear of intimidation.

Despite the importance of sport in our lives, disease exists, ranging, it appears, from state-sponsored doping and corruption down to the plague of junior football in Europe, aggressive parents and coaches abusing players and referees, reasonable-minded people need to speak out.

The existence of doping in Russia had been joked about for years. If something seems wrong, then it probably is.