Contador set to meet the press, Spanish media critical of CAS

Feb 7, 2012, 11:21 GMT

Madrid - Alberto Contador and his Saxo Bank team leader Bjarne Riis were to meet the press later Tuesday to comment on the two-year doping ban for the three-times Tour de France champion while the Spanish media criticised the ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

'The Court of Arbitration for Sports convicts Contador without knowing what happened. Every lawyer who reads the verdict must conclude that the ban for Contador is complete madness,' said the El Mundo paper.

El Periodico de Catalunya said: 'Contador's version of consuming a contaminated steak may be adventurous, but court argument is no less daring. The judges banned Contador, not because they were convinced of doping but because they presumed such a wrongdoing.'

Of the sports papers, Marca said that the CAS has lost its mind and spoke of a 'scandalous coup.'

The CAS banned Contador for two years on Monday after the Spanish rider tested positive for clenbuterol during the 2010 Tour he went on to win. He was stripped of that title and that from the 2011 Giro d'Italia as well.

The CAS said the 'the presence of clenbuterol was more likely caused by the ingestion of a contaminated food supplement' than by eating contaminated meat.

Marca said the ruling violated basic law such as the presumption of innocence.

But Spanish cycling supremo Juan Carlos Castano told dpa on Monday that there is a fundamental difference between civil law and sports law.

'Contrary to ordinary justice, where there is the presumption of innocence, sports justice has liability. On the basis of that and of a not significant negligence, the court has taken its decision,' Castano said.

'It is difficult to understand and to explain, but in sports we live with a very radical code of strict liability, and that leads to this kind of resolutions, which can appear unfair in many cases.'

The Spanish federation first acquitted Contador, but the world governing cycling body UCI and the World Anti-Doping Agency successfully appealed before the CAS.

The AS sports daily, meanwhile, warned that the Contador case should not discredit all sports in Spain and that the country gave the impression to tolerate doping.

The El Pais broadsheet said: 'The Contador case leads the impression that the chaos and arbitrariness rule in the fight against doping. Some bodies like the Spanish cycling federation want to clear the cyclist, others demand the toughest punishment.

'But the case shows beyond the legal labyrinth that Spain is more lenient in doping matters than other countries.'

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