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This doesn't look good for Essendon.
World Anti-Doping Agency president John Fahey has underlined that the global code is the ''only document that matters'' in doping cases.
Fahey resisted interpreting events in which the Australian Anti-Doping Authority provided the Australian Crime Commission with incomplete advice on AOD-9604, but his message was clear: the substance is prohibited and an athlete found to have used it should face the consequences.
''I don't know what the chain of information was to be able to conclusively explain anything. And I'm certainly not going to guess,'' Fahey said of the communication that led the ACC to publish information about AOD-9604 in its report on crime, corruption and drugs in Australian sport that was incomplete, though not incorrect.
While ASADA advised the ACC, correctly, that AOD-9604 did not fall into the S2 category of WADA's prohibited list, it has acknowledged it did not reference the substance's categorisation in the S-O ''non-approved substances''. ASADA would not acknowledge that as an error this week but, crucially, it has stated previously that it has ''not advised any party that AOD-9604 is permitted in sport''.
AFL boss Andrew Demetriou last week referred to a ''classification issue'' around AOD-9604, but Fahey said on Friday: ''I know what is clear, and I'll say it again, the substance known as AOD-9604 has never been approved, to my knowledge, by any health or regulatory authority anywhere in the world for human consumption, and therefore it is prohibited under the S-O provision … All that matters for an anti-doping violation, an ADV, is the WADA code. The simple facts here are there's a code, the athlete is bound by that code, the athlete is liable if there's a breach of that code or a violation under that code. Full stop.''
Fahey resisted interpreting events in which the Australian Anti-Doping Authority provided the Australian Crime Commission with incomplete advice on AOD-9604, but his message was clear: the substance is prohibited and an athlete found to have used it should face the consequences.
''I don't know what the chain of information was to be able to conclusively explain anything. And I'm certainly not going to guess,'' Fahey said of the communication that led the ACC to publish information about AOD-9604 in its report on crime, corruption and drugs in Australian sport that was incomplete, though not incorrect.
While ASADA advised the ACC, correctly, that AOD-9604 did not fall into the S2 category of WADA's prohibited list, it has acknowledged it did not reference the substance's categorisation in the S-O ''non-approved substances''. ASADA would not acknowledge that as an error this week but, crucially, it has stated previously that it has ''not advised any party that AOD-9604 is permitted in sport''.
AFL boss Andrew Demetriou last week referred to a ''classification issue'' around AOD-9604, but Fahey said on Friday: ''I know what is clear, and I'll say it again, the substance known as AOD-9604 has never been approved, to my knowledge, by any health or regulatory authority anywhere in the world for human consumption, and therefore it is prohibited under the S-O provision … All that matters for an anti-doping violation, an ADV, is the WADA code. The simple facts here are there's a code, the athlete is bound by that code, the athlete is liable if there's a breach of that code or a violation under that code. Full stop.''
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