The following statement was released yesterday by the Bermuda Council for Drug Free Sport (BCDS) in response to articles carried in The Royal Gazette last week regarding allegations by Devonshire Recreation Club that certain members of their soccer team were treated unfairly during drug testing procedures.

IT IS with concern and disappointment that we have read recent reports in The Royal Gazette on the situation of certain football players from Devonshire Recreation Club and the results of their drug testing of some 12 months ago.

We are unsure as to exactly the point being made by the articles, as they seem simply to be a series of sensationalised events with comments from a “Devonshire Rec official”.

We would like the public to be aware of the following issues:

1) The Bermuda Council for Drug Free Sport was established by the National Sports Governing Bodies, and the Bermuda Government as a means to address an illicit drug problem in sport, and by extension, in our society.

The Council was founded in 1998 and a group of respected administrators, chaired by Austin Woods, spent long hours developing the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), Penalties, etc. These were agreed by the NSGBs and subsequently came into force.

Each year an AGM is held and officials are elected to the committee to run the Council. Current members include widely respected administrators such as: Jon Beard, Phillip Guishard, Dennis Wainwright, Jon Gazzard, Alice Mastalir, Karl Outerbridge, Hoyt Zuill, Jamal Burgess, Helena Rawlins, and David Bean. Cal Simons from the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Community Affairs is an ex-officio member, as is Kim Jackson from the NDC. Our full time employee is Cathy Belvedere.

2) One of the cornerstones insisted upon by the inaugural committee and NSGBs was the right of privacy and confidentiality of the athletes, in as far as can possibly be managed. We are therefore shocked that The Royal Gazette has details of particular testing.

We can assure the public that this information has not come from us, and as the reporter constantly refers to an “official from Devonshire Rec” we are left to assume that this confidential information was given to The Gazette by this official. One can but hope that the club will launch an investigation as to how such a leak could occur.

3) As with all properly constituted organisations we have procedures to deal with testing, with the results and with any appeals.

4) In recent years our established reputation resulted in the role of the BCDS being further increased when we were appointed by government to be the Island's National Anti-Doping Association (NADO), and therefore the body made responsible by government for carrying out the policies of the World Anti-Doping Association (WADA). Both NADO and WADA are, of course, bodies responsible for drug testing in sport, and in particular the testing of performance enhancing drugs.

5) As a result of continued excellent support by the NDC, the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Community Affairs, and the Bank of Bermuda Foundation we have worked hard to develop the BCDS to deal with the ever changing issues in domestic and international sport.

6) Just last month we were very pleased to learn that 11 people from our sports community, who had given up their time to become qualified drug collection officers, had passed the relevant exams. This training was carried out by the United States Anti-Doping Association (USADA). These individuals are: Greg Grimes, James Marina, Hoyt Zuill, Marionette Zuill, Khomeini Talbot, Jon Gazzard, Cathy Belvedere, Helena Rawlins, Joanne Smith, Jamal Burgess, and Jon Beard.

7) Our agent in recent years has been Benedict Associates, and the BCDS applaud Benedict and their employees for the excellent contribution they have made to the council. However, as we have developed we have now opened our own offices (in Charity House on Point Finger Road), and will be doing much of our testing ourselves - just as is the situation for most NADOs. This does not mean that we will not use Benedict or other agencies as needed.

8) We thus have two requirements of the BCDS. One is to run the domestic drug testing programme as mandated by the government and NSGBs, and the other to test for performance enhancing drugs for specific elite athletes as mandated by government and WADA.

9) We feel that it is well understood by anyone representing Bermuda that before they can represent their island they have to be tested for illicit drugs as mandated by the NSGBs and government - BCDS is simply their body to do this. Last year we tested 608 athletes prior to them representing Bermuda. Less than two percent of this group was found to have an infraction. We also tested 44 elite athletes for performance enhancing drugs, and again the number of infractions was around two percent.

10) Please be advised that the BCDS does not need a waiver or any form from athletes who are selected to represent Bermuda.

Their registration with a national governing body and the request by an NSGB to us for screening carries the implication that the athlete agrees to testing (this could be pre-selection or random testing).

We feel that it must also be obvious that for us to be able to determine for the NSGBs whether or not a player can be cleared to represent Bermuda, we need a sample that meets the chemical requirements for us to test it. It is important to note that in the case of illicit screens, samples tested by BCDS, or its agent, are subject to international standards for illicit substances.

11) A part of our domestic programme is also to test for illicit drugs on a random basis. To this end the NSGBs agreed that five percent of their testing pool be tested in such a way. We were unable to do this side of the programme last financial year due to a lack of funding. This has now been rectified. The NSGBs have been informed that this is now in force and the vast majority provided us with up to date lists just before Christmas. It must be pointed out that the most efficient organisation in doing this was the Bermuda Football Association and we appreciate their professionalism.

The aggregated data (i.e. no personal information) from this testing will be used by the NDC to enable them to best guide their prevention and education programmes.

We hope it is obvious that we are managing a programme that we were mandated to design, follow, and develop. The programme has been agreed upon by NSGBs and government, the committee is voted into place by NSGBs, and is mandated to run the BCDS.

We work hard to do this, and as such it is disappointing to come under attack in the manner in which has recently happened.

Whilst we cannot comment publicly on any such matters please rest assured that there is no witchunt against any athletes or clubs. We simply do what we are asked to do by NSGBs.

In a small community like ours, and with members drawn from sports organisations it is inevitable that there may be conflict within members and their sports, just as there might be by club members serving on national associations. We do our utmost to minimalise this, and, as an example, please be assured that no member has any part in the testing procedure of any athletes of a sport to whom they are affiliated, neither is the executive informed of any personal details of athletes with infractions.

We would encourage anyone with a dispute with any aspect of testing or penalties to exhaust the procedures and appeals of our SOPs instead of going to the media.

Unfortunately any seeming victory gained in this recent newspaper tirade can only be a pyrrhic victory - there seems to be only negative fallout for all implicated in this issue. We encourage all of our community to continue to support our sports programmes, and we can assure you that the BCDS will continue to do its best in all it has been mandated to do.