Former club doctor drops drugs bombshell on AFL
The AFL has been hit with an illicit drugs bombshell, bizarrely aired in federal parliament on Tuesday night.
Federal MP Andrew Wilkie used parliament to reveal a signed statement he says he received from former Melbourne Demons doctor Zeeshan Arain.
Arain accuses the AFL of conducting off-the-books illicit drugs testing on players and essentially covering up positive results.
He even named Dorevitch Pathology in Heidelberg as the facility the AFL used to conduct the alleged secret testing.
“I rise to bring the house’s attention to deeply troubling allegations of egregious misconduct within the AFL provided by former Melbourne Football Club president Glen Bartlett, former Melbourne Football Club doctor Zeeshan Arain and Shaun Smith, father of Melbourne player and now alleged drug trafficker Joel Smith,” Wilkie said.
“The allegations include the prevalence of drug abuse and other prohibited behaviour across the AFL, off-the-books drug testing of players at Dorevitch Pathology in Heidelberg, facilitated by the former chief medical officer of the AFL Peter Harcourt, the resting of players testing positive in these secret tests, ostensibly on account of injury, wilful inaction by AFL chairman Richard Goyder, and former CEO Gill McLachlan.
“The allegations are credible, detailed and provided in signed statements which have been given to me which clearly identify the sources of the information.
“The allegations are also deeply troubling … Such appalling behaviour endangers the life, safety and future of players and officials, subverts the official drug testing conducted by Sports Integrity Australia on behalf of the World Anti-Doping Authority and is a fraud on the governments that provide millions of dollars in support to the AFL directly and indirectly through tax-breaks, grants and beneficial capital works, conditional on the AFL being a signatory to and complying with WADA code.
