Irish Sports Council Priorities Messed Up
In this post I’m going to analyse the Irish Sport’s Council’s 2006 Anti-Doping report. I’m doing this as it seems no else has bothered to do so.
The Information I referenced is the Anti-Doping Report for 2006
The Irish Sports Council spent €1,623,700 on their Anti-Doping program in 2006. This is an awful lot of money and more than the annual budgets of most sporting organisations in Ireland. Now I’m not looking for results from this money but I would like to see it being spent where it needs it most.
The primary target of the testers was athletics which had 167 tests and cycling which had 103. Now this is my problem, The ISC seem to have bought the hype regarding these two sports. Yes both have serious problems but they both have problems at the high level not at amateur level. There are probably about 10 athletes and 6 cyclists who make a half decent living as professionals in their sport. So for these 16 and their amateur compatriots there were 270 tests.
Now contrast this to rugby which has a strong professional set-up (4 provinces, several clubs and players playing abroad). How many rugby tests were there? Just 42!
So given there were 40 odd players on the Irish rugby players on the international panel pre-world cup it is safe to say that many were not tested and the majority tested once. This is bad enough for speed power sport. But consider this fact below, the IRFU paid for 32 extra user-pays tests and the Six Nations paid for 16. Why are the IRFU paying for tests, surely this is the ISC’s job?
Does it not undermine the credibility of the test if you pay for it yourself? Do people call up the Guards to breathalyse them at their discretion? Of course not. Whether or not the IRFU have the ability to dictate the timing of the test is irrelevant, why should they be paying, why only 32 and who are they testing?
Rugby has gone from amateur to professional, from skinny to musclebound and from failure to success by in large over the last 5 years. A scientific approach would investigate these variables further. The ISC have bought the hype regarding the tour de France etc. The trouble is at the top and we have more top rugby players than in any other sport. I’m not saying they are doing anything but surely it is those who gain most from professional sport should be tested most?
Note: The amateur GAA men were tested 56 times, and wheelchair sports tested 42, ironically the same number as rugby. Priorities, priorities!
Posted 09.10.07