Clubs may sue ACC and ASADA

[Eagles2nv]

Article in the SMH, the NRL and clubs are apparently considering legal action against ACC and ASADA.

I think if clubs come out clean, then i think they have a case. This has been handled really badly.

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/clubs-may-sue-over-report-20130216-2ejwg.html

 

[Jatz Crackers]

Then you would expect Slater & Gordon to be all over this like a cheap suit on a harvey norman sales rep.

 

[Chip and Chase]

"No win no fee" no doubt

 

[Masked Eagle]

More than likely no chance. More luck sueing media organisations for reporting rumours as facts. As far as I'm aware ACC and ASADA haven't actually accused anybody of anything, at least publically, not sure on what basis a lawsuit would be successful.

 

[Eagles2nv]

I think they are going with the brand image damage and loss of sponsorship angle. (other than the sharks, i havnt heard of anyone who has suffered sponsorship losses, but im not sure).

Masked eagle, i agree, they would probably have a better shot against media.

That said, the NRL is also considering action against them. And although they havnt accused anybody, they have named 6 clubs and the NRL, which are subsequently being dragged through it. (I respect that someone will be guilty in the coming weeks, rendering alot of this legal talk mute.).

There have been numerous cases were people have been accused of something, found to be innocent and then sued for damages.

At the end of the day, i doubt this will end up in the courts

 

[HappilyManly]

ACC and ASADA have no monies that the 6 Clubs can go after.

Plus, they are at pains to point out that they will NOT name any entity and did not.

It was the Media that leaked the 6 Clubs in the NRL.
Then each Club confirmed it by TV appearances - FFS.
Dumb move, as the clean urine tests were all that they hang their reputations on.
Yet in the very same disclaimer, they all said that they do not have the charges nor the players information:huh:

The ASADA investigation is ongoing and nobody is cleared - including the other 10 Clubs IMO.

Currently ASADA have 34 Player names for potential or actual prohibited/illegal/match fixing cases. As the investigation proceeds, the web will widen to others; and those named may also be exonerated.

Having worked with data mining systems, the webs that show up are amazing. However, then you have the due process of proving it

Lawyers in Oz are laughing all the way to the Bank:dodgy:

Clubs should check their Contract Clauses and have each Player sign a statutory declaration now, then get on with footy. Their resources should be concentrated on fielding a competitive Team in 2013.

Any Player who is then proven by ASADA to be guilty,can face the consequences of their self interested, short term actions.

 

[tookey]

Then you would expect Slater & Gordon to be all over this like a cheap suit on a harvey norman sales rep.

Why would Billy and Michael care about this?

No chance of a sucessful legal action action against entities such as ASADA and ACC. Like trying to sue the local council. All care and no responsibility

 

[lsz]

It will happen just after we sue Des

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

This proposed legal action will bear fruit for the aggrieved parties shortly after hell freezes over.

 

[tookey]

This proposed legal action will bear fruit for the aggrieved parties shortly after hell freezes over.

Which will be just after norths win the grand final

 

[WAMF]

More luck sueing media organisations for reporting rumours as facts.

So it was the media that called the press conference to hype up the seriousness of drugs in sport and match fixing. I didn't realise that. My bad.

 

[Masked Eagle]

More luck sueing media organisations for reporting rumours as facts.

So it was the media that called the press conference to hype up the seriousness of drugs in sport and match fixing. I didn't realise that. My bad.

Pretty sure I didn't say that. The point is the press conference didn't name names, so I'm not sure how successful a lawsuit would be. Even suing the media would be a long stretch.

You seem to be very keen to make this political, but did you watch Graeme Annesley on CH9 last thursday? He sits on the other side of the political fence and he said he saw the detailed/classified report and his words were "frightening" and "scarey". This should tell you the general public haven't been privy to the entire report just yet.

This still has a long way to go and whilst it might seem atm the press conference was a bad thing, only time will tell IMO.

 

[WAMF]

More luck sueing media organisations for reporting rumours as facts.

So it was the media that called the press conference to hype up the seriousness of drugs in sport and match fixing. I didn't realise that. My bad.

Pretty sure I didn't say that. The point is the press conference didn't name names, so I'm not sure how successful a lawsuit would be. Even suing the media would be a long stretch.

You seem to be very keen to make this political, but did you watch Graeme Annesley on CH9 last thursday? He sits on the other side of the political fence and he said he saw the detailed/classified report and his words were "frightening" and "scarey". This should tell you the general public haven't been privy to the entire report just yet.

This still has a long way to go and whilst it might seem atm the press conference was a bad thing, only time will tell IMO.

Yes, I saw Annesley's comments. Did you also catch the part where he said information aside, he agreed that all sports had been tarnished as a result of the 'generalised' accusations laid out at the press conference?

I've only ever questioned the timing of the presser. I then gave my own theory as to why I believed it was a political stunt. I never suggested there couldn't be or isn't a problem of some sort.

It could also be argued that The ACC are also fighting for relevance and Mr Lawlor has been under immense pressure. He has conceded that the presser was solely his idea and has conceded that a byproduct of that is that some/all clubs share the blame until the results are out, so to speak.

I strongly maintain that if there are cheats, get rid of them and set the example for all the existing and up and coming future stars. Send a clear message via actions/sanctions ect that PED's in sport will not be tolerated.
But so far all we've heard are words. Time for action if there is a widespread problem in the codes.

Don't talk about fixing it, just bloody do it!

 

[Hamster Huey]

More than likely no chance. More luck sueing media organisations for reporting rumours as facts. As far as I'm aware ACC and ASADA haven't actually accused anybody of anything, at least publically, not sure on what basis a lawsuit would be successful.

Statements like this aren't helpful and make the whole thing look even more farcical.

ASADA chief executive Aurora Andruska issued a statement earlier this week saying the investigation would include 150 interviews with players and staff. Ms Andruska now admits that number is little more than an educated guess.

"I had a lot of pressure put on me in recent times to try to come up with a number, particularly from the media," she told the Nine Network.

"So I decided I needed to come up with a number that was realistic with the information I had at the time."

 

[jbb/james]

I dont think they will sue. But what i would like to see it a unified body of sports combine, call a media conference, claiming they have been tarnished, they have sought legal counsel, the wheels were in motion, they had been defamed, that certain departments were liable and they were going to be aggressive in seeking compensation. Its a scandal that goes straight to the top. It was a decoy method

Then piss off to the pub


If ever asked they just continue to claim its ongoing, its real and that as its an ongoing investigation they can not reveal any details

 

[Rex]

This proposed legal action will bear fruit for the aggrieved parties shortly after hell freezes over.

The only way they'd get any cold cash from that action.

 

[winnyason]

Ask the french how sueing the government went, it does not work

 

[swoop]

Doping points to sport's main game
Date February 18, 2013 (0) Comments 2 Read later
Roy Masters
''Everyone seems focused on asking when can we hear the cell door clanging" ... John Lawler. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

The single biggest problem facing Australian sport is match-fixing, according to the head of the Australian Crime Commission, John Lawler, who argues this has been largely ignored in the firestorm of publicity that followed his recently released report.

Lawler said the zealotry of the media in seeking to identify codes, clubs and players guilty of the use of performance-enhancing and illicit drugs was understandable but has had two unfortunate consequences: it has distracted attention away from the end problem - criminality and match-fixing - and has created divisions at a time the ACC seeks unity in confronting the problem.

''Everyone seems focused on asking when can we hear the cell door clanging,'' he says, in reference to naming and shaming the guilty. ''But the important thing is to make codes, clubs and players aware criminals want to enter their sports and use drugs as a path to match-fixing.''

While people might argue there is nothing new in the links between organised crime and sport, and draw attention to past prosecutions over match-fixing, Lawler said recent intelligence revealed a dramatic increase of links between athletes and criminals.

Advertisement ''What is new is the issue of performance- and image-enhancing drugs, with many cases happening in the last couple of months,'' he said.

''We have information that the Russian and Italian mafias are supplying performance- and image-enhancing drugs across Europe. Organised crime is at the epicentre of sport with ramifications for soccer.

''There are 300 to 400 officials caught up in that, and it is getting worse and worse.

''All these cases have come in the past couple of months. When you look at it globally, it is a significant problem. There are Singaporean criminal groups involved in betting schemes in the European environment.

''It's already been reported by the Victorian police of an A-League game drawing a betting pool of $HK40 million [$5 million]. The sounds of criminals who want to influence Australian matches is clanging like a cymbal.

''The supply of drugs to sportspeople by criminals is a very lucrative practice in its own right, but the real money is to be found in match-fixing.''

Lawler also made it clear the ACC report released in Canberra on February 7 was not, as many now believe, an atomic bomb set off to see what reptiles crawled out from the crevices.

''If anything, the report is conservative,'' he said. ''Over time, as more information emerges, people will look back on the public announcement of the results of the year-long investigation and rationalise why things are the way they are.''

While confidentiality provisions do not allow him to cite specific examples of the threat of match-fixing in Australia, he said there was increasing intelligence where the supply of drugs, gambling and corrupting games were linked.

''We've got players using peptides and amphetamines and other illicit drugs and supplying it to other players and being introduced to criminals,'' he said. ''The crims look to corrupt the player but the players and their associations and their sports are not equipped to understand.

''The criminals get their hooks in and get information, and this leads to match-fixing and other criminality.

''It has a multiplier effect. There are some big blinking red signs, and while the corruption may not be evident now, unless we do something, we have a major problem. The solution needs to come from within.''

Lawler said this was why it was disturbing for some of the media to report one code had a bigger drug problem than another.

''We are trying to get a united front but some of the media has been disappointing in creating divisions between codes,'' he said.

''In our briefings with the codes and players' associations, not one sport said they haven't got a problem. We want all the codes with us. Everybody's got a problem.''

Lawler said all sports and the Coalition of Major Professional and Participation Sports were briefed separately in Canberra at ACC headquarters on January 31.

The next day COMPPS advised all its members to attend a meeting in Melbourne on February 5 to discuss ''serious integrity issues''. The ACC press conference took place in Canberra two days later. He insisted no sports were given any information about other sports, nor had the ACC passed any on to the media.

''We've been careful not to mention codes, clubs and players. We won't do it, and in private briefings to sports we won't comment on other sports,'' he said.

''We briefed the sports on the classified information that related to their sports.

''They were given sufficient detail on their own circumstances.''

Lawler said published ACC statistics were a year behind but quoted alarming figures from the 2010-11 report. ''We have seen an explosion of peptide-related seizures and detection … peptides up 125 per cent, steroids up 225 per cent and 50 per cent of users are admitting they are using peptides.

''The latest figures confirm the trend is increasing.

''It is a market that is growing, emerging and profitable.

''There is a 100 per cent-plus mark-up on the products the criminals are selling.

''Criminals go to where the money stream is, and drugs - leading to match-fixing - is the business they want to be in.''



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/doping-points-to-sports-main-game-20130217-2el8s.html#ixzz2LEABJLCz

Here's a different slant on proceedings.

 

[Rex]

Swoop. What are you doing introducing an article about the bigger picture? What about sensationalised & myopic narrow self-interest? Where's Hadley & Kent when you need them?

 

[wombatgc]

I think it might just be a little ploy to get the ACC and ASADA to get the names out there asap. Nobody will want the names dropped a day before the season proper.