Monday 21 April 2008

DEL Finals: Cologne lose it but the doubts remain

So Kölner Haie lost Game 4 of the finals on Sunday in dramatic fashion. The whole series remained at a dealock in almost every single game and these must have been the closest playoffs I have ever experienced in my entire life. Of the eight teams who made it to the post season at least six might have had a legitimate shot at the title. So the final series ended with a 3-1 victory of Eisbären Berlin, who, alongside with Adler Mannheim, dominated German ice hockey over the past few years.
Still some doubts remain because of the player who scored the winning goal in overtime last weekend. Florian Busch was exposed of missing a doping test soem time ago, a fact which under the laws of the national anti-doping agency leads to an immediate supension. Still the German Ice Hockey Federation DEB does not submit itself under the rules of the German national sports court and in this particular case it just didn't act. What happened was that Mr Busch got a visit from some inspectors of the NADA (National Anti-Doping Agency) on Maqrch 6th who are supposed to pay visits to athletes on an irregular basis without announcing that they are coming over to check on them. When the player Busch opened the door he excused himself, saying that he isn't able to perform a doping test right now, because he was, at the time, "in a situation of enormous stress". One has to wonder what that might have been? There was the case of a Belgium cycling professional who was asked by doping inspectors to perform a doping test when he was busy with arranging the funeral for his son who was killed recently. Now that's what someone would call a situation of enormous stress. But according to some newspaper articles Mr Busch didn't look like that apperently. He delivered a test hours later and that test was negative, of course.
There is some kind of concern regarding the anti-doping practices of the German NADA, especially when you keep in mind what happened in cycling over the past few years. German athletes had a record of using performance enhancing drugs in the past, and most of the success the athletes of the former GDR was built on a state financed program which encouraged athletes to use such substances. Sometimes athletes were even injected those drugs wthout them knowing it.
To my knowledge this is the first time this happened in ice hockey but it is extremely worrying how Eisbären Berlin chose to deal with the situation. The result won't be revoked and Eisbären are the champions now, but a bitter aftertaste and some doubts remain.

Edit:
What'S written in this article (in German) is that theer seems to be some action from the side of the NADA. Obviously they are not satisfied with the outcome and they are still waiting for the DEB to give them a reason why they let Busch play in the finals. They will refer the case to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and that body has the right to bring the case to the world's sport court CAS which can rule on the matter. So there might be something coming at the Eisbären in the future...

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