The highest body of Spanish sport has called for the resignation of the head of the national anti-doping agency, suspected of irregularities and in particular of having concealed cases of doping.
The Superior Sports Council (CSD) announced in a press release published Friday evening that it had transmitted to the judicial authorities the results of an investigation launched following a complaint on “alleged irregularities in the use of public funds as well as in the control and sanction of doping by CELAD”, the Spanish agency for the fight against doping in sport.
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According to the online sports media Relevo, CELAD took advantage of bureaucratic loopholes to conceal cases of doping.
It will be up to the public prosecutor to decide on possible prosecutions, the CSD said in its press release. But already, its president José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes has asked the director of CELAD, José Luis Terreros, to resign because of “the damage to the reputation of Spanish sport and our control system”.
In the event of refusal, the president of the CSD and the Minister of Education and Sports Pilar Alegría “will propose at the next CELAD board of directors the dismissal of Mr. Terreros,” warns the body, which also said to be “totally willing to collaborate loyally with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)”.
WADA criticized the Spanish anti-doping agency on Friday and threatened to take “significant measures for Spanish sport” if doping cases were not handled “quickly and effectively”.
“We are well aware of the deep problems in the fight against doping in Spain,” Witold Banka, the WADA president who opened an investigation, said in a statement.
