After whistleblowers claimed widespread abuse of the drug in the sport, the Australian Football League ( AFL ) has denied having a cocaine problem.
An MP charged the Melbourne Demons membership and the AFL in general of covering up violations of the team’s drug policy in a speech to parliament on Tuesday.
According to Andrew Wilkie, players were being asked to fabricate injuries to avert fit day medication tests.
The AFL’s manager did not contradict those statements, but said medication use was surprising.
The biggest supporter numbers of any game are present at the Australian Rules football competition.
Mr. Wilkie allegedly used legislative opportunity to make the allegations public by which three people, according to him, gave them. Glen Bartlett, a former Demons leader, Zeeshan Arain, a former team doctor, and Shaun Smith, a former gamer and father of recent Demons legend Joel Smith, are among them.
In his conversation, Mr. Wilkie asserted that “off- the- ebooks” tests were carried out at a Melbourne disease center and were led by a previous AFL chief medical officer.
The MP claimed that players who had positive tests were “advised to lie about their condition” and that they had been kept secret from governing bodies like Sports Integrity Australia ( SIA ) or the World Anti-Doping Agency as well as team coaches.
Those who test positive for illegal drugs on meet times are subject to penalties, including prohibitions, under the anti-doping code.
In other words, “hundreds of dozens of Australians will watch the game without realizing that the AFL has knowingly manipulated it,” said Mr. Wilkie.
The manager of the Demons claimed that he had no idea of the reported process and was surprised by the allegations. The group’s captain has also recently denied that there is a drug culture at the club.
In a press release, AFL CEO Andrew Dillon stated that the game conducted its unique illegal drug testing in addition to those conducted by governing body.
We do n’t want them to participate in matches because there is a chance that they might have something in their system, and we do n’t want them to do it because their health and welfare are important to them above all else, he said.
He did not address the claim that players were instructed to false injuries so that nobody else would know about their outcomes, but that participants had a correct to doctor-patient pleasure.
The AFL is reviewing its illegal drugs scheme, he added, but the activity does not have a drug problem.
” What we’re talking about here is a tiny handful of people over a time”, he said.
Two Sydney Swans team AFL women’s players were given suspended games earlier this week for each cocaine ownership.
And last quarter, the SIA accused Joel Smith of having and” smuggling or attempted prostitution” cocaine, who has been suspended from playing. He has not been illegally charged.