You've named one large sponsor- Sky is the largest and best team in the world having joined the ranks of cycling during its biggest crisis. The No 1 aim of Sky was to win the ToF, cycling's flagship (and drug riddled) event within 5 years

Cycling is bigger now than its ever been and will grow further.

Lance Armstrong is known by more people today than ever before. Who would have known about Tyler Hamilton without drugs.

Cycling is in an absolute boom at the moment and when they get rid of the idiot at the top of the UCI it will go from strength to strength

Manly and Cronulla have been visited by auditors, www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 6572674068

Manly and Cronulla have been visited by auditors, www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 6572674068

The news report that I heard/saw mentioned organised crime being involved as well as match fixing and that a criminal investigation was launched,so presumably sub-judice applies.
Don't think the story ends here.The Australians ain't happy.

Does this mean that the RFL will be docking all those 80s cups off the Pies?

I presume you mean the cycling boom in this country. Think that's more to do with Sir Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendelton and Sir Bradley Wiggins.

Just because people are watching the news about Lance Armstrong, doesn't mean they are into cycling.

Anyway, looks like it's going to cost the NRL $100 million sponsorship deal with Telstra.

Nowt to worry about really, because as the BBC report says "two sporting codes under particularly close scrutiny, Aussie Rules (AFL) and rugby league (NRL) do not have much of an international profile."

Ammo.

Here, yes. Cycling is going through a boom here. In places where it has competed with football as the number one sport it is in a relative slump. These are the people who have been disappointed time and time again. They're the ones who lived and breathed the "now, finally we can move on" moments that have been happening every year since the Festina scandal.

Liquigas have left. HTC have left. Rabobank have left. Hell, we don't even have ex KGB friends of Putin competing with manufacturers of camping accessories any more.

Don't get me wrong, there's still plenty of money in it. And teams have always been here today and gone tomorrow. There's nobody in pretty much the entire history of the sport who can say they watch the same teams their parents did (if anyone even supports teams anyway, I don't really know anyone who does that).

Lots of big companies have left though. HTC were winning every race when they walked out.

Its saving grace is the number of sports that are going to go through this over the coming years. Everything's tainted.

There was an article on this in tonight's London Evening Standard. I cannot readily see it on their website but it mau be there somewhere.

It suggested that there was a widespread problem in Aussie sport (although if I recall, apparently not cricket). It implied that Aussie Rules and Rugby League could be scandalised big time. There is tough talk coming out about cleaning things up. I am guessing this will be very serious and devestating. I think we'll be talking jail sentences and clubs closed down.

From what I saw earlier, football and union will also be implicated- but as the NRL and AFL are dominant, they will get the kicking.

Looks like the RLWC might be be on a level playing field then?

If they start folding Australian clubs up, then the game is dead. The Aussie game supplies our only real competition (Without them, the NZ game will die, and probably take the Island nations with them) and without any international competition at all, we'll lose sponsors and interest.

you'd have thought the Aussies would have done better at the Olympics wouldn't you?

For sure at this years world cup the drug testing will be intense. I don't quite know how certain countries and players will react to it. It might be interesting to see which players drop out of this years world cup because of injury, or certain surgery

I don't think we're likely to see clubs 'closed down' or any of the knee-jerk measures currently being bandied around ('ban all sports betting now!' - as if a shedload isn't done offshore even by Aussies anyway). Some clubs may get hammered and have a number of players banned though.

ASADA has asked players to come forward now and face 6 months as opposed to a potential 4 years if they are done involuntarily. I think it will take a bit more pressure for many players to come forward though, as the price for leniency will be to spill the beans on everything they know - which is likely to involve giving evidence against teammates.

However, if drug use is shown to be absolutely widespread in terms of numbers of players and across both AFL and NRL, I wouldn't be surprised to see a further amnesty being granted for players at least, as if AFL and NRL were genuinely smashed to pieces (i.e. 100s of first-graders facing bans) then something would be done to protect the sports. Knocking over the AFL and NRL combined would be the equivalent of wiping out the Premier League.

It should be noted that the 'non-international' element primarily relates to potential match-fixing. As we've already seen, cricket has its issues, and soccer may have been caught up in it, not because its a major sport here, but gamblers across the world can understand it and place bets (I also wouldn't underestimate the fact that footballers here in the main also aren't paid as well as AFL/NRL players which potentially could make them easier to target).

As for naming names, its not just criminal issues, there's also the fact that any player who faces a doping investigation could also argue for prejudicial hearings if their name is plastered all over the papers and the evidence against them is based on evidence from other people.