Sports Council Should Stop 'One Rule For The Little Guys, Another For Stars'

6.00.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 8th Oct 2003

Hampshire MEP Chris Huhne today said that the way the rules against drugs in sport were being applied were now 'crazily inconsistent' and said that the Sports Council should look again at the issue across British sport.

Speaking in the wake of the controversy over England star Rio Ferdinand's exclusion from the squad for the key qualifier against Turkey, Mr Huhne said that if anything Rio Ferdinand was being treated leniently by the standards of other sports.

Mr Huhne drew attention to the ban meted out to Hampshire student Robert Hamilton-Jones following his failure to complete an adequate urine sample following his appearance in a 1500 metres race for Team Solent in a British cup match at West London stadium in 1991.

He filled only half the 70 millilitres required due to dehydration on a warm day, and had to return to Hampshire for his student job. The British Athletic Federation banned him for life, said Mr Huhne.

'Robert Hamilton-Jones was just an enthusiastic amateur runner from Southampton who was not well-known or well-paid but the book was thrown at him. By contrast, Phil Tufnell failed to provide a sample to Sports council testers in 1997 but the England and Wales cricket board accepted his explanation and fined him instead with a suspended eighteen month ban' said Mr Huhne.

'The Sports council needs to take a tough line against drugs use in sport, but it must also ensure that sport treats the little people with as much respect and consideration as the stars' said Mr Huhne

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