Dear Mr Coates

I am writing to you in your capacity as President of the Court of Arbitration for Sport. 

1. If, it is within the rules, I urge you to have a quiet word with WADA’s Mr Howman about the wisdom / stupidity of WADA pursuing the appeal against the 34 present and former Essendon players. If you don’t, CAS and WADA will ultimately take a severe battering, which will take years to repair.
   
   
2. Mr Howman is relying upon fabricated information, not evidence, gathered from what was arguably the most corrupt investigation in Australian sporting history. Although, I provided evidence of corruption in the attached letter to Mr Howman, you only need to know what happened on 9 February 2013 to recognise that the investigation was corrupted from day one. 
   
   
3. On 9 February 2013 Essendon chairman David Evans and CEO Ian Robson attended a meeting in Canberra with ASADA’s chief executive Aurora Andruska, chief operating officer Trevor Burgess, general manager of anti-doping programmes and legal services Elen Perdikogiannis, director of intelligence and investigations Paul Simonsson; AFL’s Gillon McLachlan and Brett Clothier; and, Richard Eccles from Senator Kate Lundy’s office. 
   
   
4. Unbelievably, during the meeting Eccles asked Gillon McLachlan what he wanted from the investigation. Not a single interview had been conducted and here we had the prime minister’s senior sporting bureaucrat corrupting the investigation. 
   
   
5. Andruska kept a record in a note book of all important comments made in meetings she attended. Andruska recorded McLachlan’s response to Eccles’s question: ‘Come to arrangement. Players found to be innocent. This is the outcome. Sanctions against Essendon. Held responsible. Hold individuals accountable.’ Eccles put the icing on the cake when he told all attendees that the PM [Julia Gillard] wanted the matter to end [my emphasis]. 
   
   
6. In reality, the AFL, ASADA, the Essendon board and the federal government decided at this meeting to exonerate the AFL commissioners, the Essendon board and the Essendon players, but unconscionably decided to find Essendon and individuals (code for James Hird) guilty. 
   
   
7. Having decided on the end result before the investigation started, the so called ‘evidence’ was gathered, and in some instances changed, to secure Essendon and Hird’s guilt. Consequently, it was a corrupt investigation and CAS and WADA will inevitably be smashed if they pursue the case knowing that the information ‘evidence’ is so tarnished.
   
   
8. The ramifications of the 9 February 2013 meeting were too many to detail. Inter alia:
   
   i. The investigation was corrupt in that guilt of taking banned substances by the players had already been decided by McLachlan, ASADA and the federal government.
   
   ii. The support staff would be held responsible, which is code for “James Hird will be punished” and the AFL and Essendon board members’ roles and legal responsibilities wouldn’t even be examined.
   
   iii. The investigation should have been aborted immediately. The AFL committed ‘blue murder’ and ASADA and Evans, who was representing the Essendon board, agreed with it.
   
   iv. McLachlan has brought the AFL into disrepute and should either resign or be sacked for a number of reasons:
   
   v. He corrupted the investigation from virtually day-one
   
   vi. In finding Essendon guilty, he created an opportunity to fine Essendon $2 million dollars. That’s a handy boost to the AFL’s coffers. I’m not sure whether the law says that was kosher. I’d love to know from a legal expert whether any, or all, of the five elements, which constitute fraud, were present
   
   vii. He denied Essendon and Hird procedural fairness. In essence it was ordained on 9 February 2013 that Hird’s reputation and coaching career were to be destroyed.
   
   viii. In June 2013 it was agreed by ASADA, the AFL, the Essendon board and the federal government that Essendon would not be allowed to play in the finals. Despite this decision, the AFL and Essendon continued to sell access memberships to Essendon supporters, which guaranteed holders preferential seating for the finals matches in which Essendon was playing. Simply put the AFL and Essendon were selling a product that didn’t exist. Not much different from the old Russell Island land sales of the early 1970s when the developers sold land that was under water at high tide.
   
   ix. McLachlan briefed the AFL commissioners with ASADA and the federal government’s agreement in June 2013 and not only declared Hird and Essendon guilty but told them what the penalty would be. There were only three problems. One, the investigation hadn’t been completed. Two, charges hadn’t been laid against Hird or Essendon. Three, the commissioners were supposed to be the jury and were supposed to decide on whether they were guilty or not, and then decide on the penalties if appropriate.  
   
   x. Perhaps worst of all McLachlan showed he didn’t give a stuff about alleged banned substances being used in the AFL. The AFL has a non-negotiable commitment to WADA, ASADA, the federal government, all 18 clubs and the players to identify and punish those who take banned substances. 
   
   xi. Here we have the then deputy chief executive, and now chief executive, demanding the players not be punished on what WADA calls a spurious claim that the players weren’t at fault. And all this before McLachlan had seen any evidence and before the investigation had commenced. It is unconscionable that the AFL is run by someone with such an attitude to banned substances. If there is any sense of decency in the Australian football world and in the media, McLachlan will be driven out.
   
   
9. Mr Coates, the above should be enough for you to persuade Mr Howman to withdraw his appeal. But just in case he wants to play silly buggers, I suggest you take 10 minutes to read the attached letter. You will learn ASADA changed evidence, fabricated evidence, and accepted ‘evidence’ from the AFL integrity officer, it knew to be untrue. Unbelievably, ASADA also testified untruly in its own investigation. 
   
   
10. One of the better examples of ASADA’s chicanery appears on page 406 of its Interim Report. ASADA claimed Stephen Dank intended administering 1102 AOD-9604 injections to 38 Essendon players. As it transpired, 20 players received two AOD-9604 injections each. That’s a grand total of 40 AOD-9604 injections, which is substantially short of the 1102 claimed by ASADA. Do you really think it is right to rely on information gathered by investigators who distort the figures like this?
    
    
11. Finally, even armed with corrupt evidence, WADA has an impossible task. Even if WADA can prove, which it can’t, Thymosin Beta-4 was present at Essendon, because there are no records, WADA can’t prove Thymosin Beta-4 was administered to player 1, and player 2, and player 3 … and player 34. 
    
    Bruce Francis