By David Gold
November 16 – Australia’s women’s soccer team have appealed to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) over North Korea’s controversial qualification for the London 2012 Olympics, and want to take their place at the Games.
North Korea’s team were banned from the 2015 Women’s World Cup after five of their players tested positive for drugs at the World Cup in Germany this summer.
But they were cleared to compete in the Olympic qualifying tournament which took place in China in September, and from which Australia just failed to qualify after finishing third, a position behind the North Koreans, whom they had lost to 1-0 in the opening game.
The Australian Olympic Committee, who confirmed that they had lodged the protest, are likely to find that their appeal falls on deaf ears as the IOC are not responsible for the organisation of the football tournament in London next year.
FIFA are in charge of the competition, and they insist that as the doping offence took place during the World Cup, the ban imposed on North Korea should only apply to that competition.
They liken it to a player being sent off in a league match who, even if suspended for a number of games, would be able to play in the next game if it was in a different competition, such as a continental tournament.
Thea Slatyer (pictured in yellow in match against North Korea), a defender for the team, was concerned that new players competing for North Korea had not had to undergo drugs tests.
“We’re a very fair country,” she said.
“We’ve always played fair and played by the rules.
“It does make you really upset to know that a team that has conducted this behaviour is kind of allowed to get away with not being tested.”
John Boultbee, the Australian Football Federation’s national teams chief, said that they had also appealed to WADA to appeal FIFA’s ruling.
“We think it’s strange that a team is banned for 2015 and not 2012 so we have raised the issue with WADA, the IOC and FIFA but so far to no avail,” he said.
“We recognise there’s an element of self interest from our point of view because we were third in the qualification tournament but also we are not happy that what FIFA has found to be systematic doping, has not been dealt with in the most effective way.”
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