The press announced the positive control of a volleyball player member of the Russian team who beat the France team during the last Olympic Qualifying Tournament. However, according to journalists, this positive test could lead to the disqualification of the Russian team. What are the International Volleyball Federation's regulations in this area? And what about other major team sports?
The Medical and Anti-Doping Regulations of the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB)
According to the article 11 of Medical and anti-doping regulations of the International Volleyball Federation, "if a member of a team (…) has been notified of an anti-doping rule violation under Article 7"during a competition, the Federation has two possibilities:
- either carry out targeted checks of the entire team during the event;
- either disqualify the team from the event or take other disciplinary action, including withdrawal of the results, in addition to the consequences imposed on the individual volleyball player.
Several factors must be taken into account before imposing a collective sanction. Thus the FIVB recommends taking into account, for example,:
- positive control of an athlete on other matches in the competition;
- the importance taken by the athlete tested positive in the results of the team;
- ...
What does the World Anti-Doping Code provide?
It is important to specify that all anti-doping regulations of international federations are taken in application of the World Anti-Doping Code 2015.
Article 11 of the 2015 Code provides for the consequences of a positive test of an athlete for the teams.
According to Article 11.1 :
"Where more than one member of a team in a team sport has been notified of an anti-doping rule violation under Article 7 in connection with an event, the body responsible for the event shall perform an appropriate number of targeted checks for the team during the event".
It should be noted that the Code therefore does not provide for the possibility of directly sanctioning the entire team as conceived by the FIVB.
More than two offending players
According to the Code, it is necessary that more than two members of a team have committed an anti-doping rule violation for a sanction to be taken against the team (Article 11.2:
"If more than two members of a team in a team sport have committed an anti-doping rule violation during the duration of the event, the body responsible for the event must impose an appropriate sanction on the team in question (e.g. , loss of points, disqualification from a competition or event, or other sanction) in addition to the consequences imposed on Athletes who have committed the anti-doping rule violation".
Article 11.3 nevertheless leaves the possibility for the organization responsible for an event to establish more severe consequences for team sports:
"The organization responsible for an event may decide to establish rules for an event which impose more severe consequences than those provided for in article 11.2 for the purpose of the event.".
This seems to be the case with the FIVB as we have indicated, which allows the team to be sanctioned from the first positive test of one of the players.
What about other International Federations?
La Fiba also indicates that, if the basketball player proves that he did not commit any fault or negligence, his team cannot be disqualified (11.3 article), unless :
- more than one player who tested positive cannot prove that he did not commit a fault;
- the player's doping had an impact on his team's results.
