(Sports) 34 players from Australian football club Essendon handed doping ban for 2016 season

Australian football club Essendon, which competes in the elite Australian Football League (AFL), was informed on Tuesday that 34 of its past and present players have been suspended from the entire 2016 season for illegal doping.

The unprecedented decision has been described as the most "devastating" for Australian sport, after the players were found guilty of being "complicit" in an illegal supplements program which took place behind closed doors in 2012.

The players were found guilty by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, bringing to a close a three-year drama for the club's players, administrators and staff.

Essendon's chairman Lindsay Tanner confirmed the news in a statement Tuesday morning, with most of the 34 players to serve their bans during the 2016 season. The ban ends in November and they will be free to play in 2017.

"Regrettably we can confirm the Court of Arbitration for Sport has found 34 past and present players guilty of committing an anti-doping rule violation," Tanner said in the statement.

"As a result, the players - including 12 currently listed with Essendon - have been suspended for the 2016 season. The club is currently digesting the decision and we will provide a further update later today."

The court decision was released in a statement, and confirmed there was "comfortable satisfaction that Clause 11.2 of the 2010 AFL Doping Code (use of a prohibited substance) has been violated and found by a majority that all players were significantly at fault."

Of the 34 players originally part of the dubious supplements program, just 12 remain at Essendon, including its captain, vice-captain and a number of other senior players, while the Port Adelaide Football Club, St Kilda Football Club, Melbourne Football Club and Western Bulldogs Football Club have all traded for players that were on Essendon's 2012 list in the years following.

The Bombers will now be forced to select a team from a smaller pool of players, with only players traded in and drafted after 2012 available for selection.

The AFL now faces the problem of diminished crowd figures, television ratings and interest in the sport, with Essendon being so weakened and, on the surface, uncompetitive.

Meanwhile, Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) CEO Ben McDevitt labeled the situation as the most "devastating self-inflicted injury by a sporting club in Australian history."

"There were very little grounds for the players to claim they were at no significant fault," McDevitt said in a statement on Tuesday.

"The players had received anti-doping education through the AFL and ASADA, and were well aware that they are personally responsible for all substances that entered their body.

"Unfortunately, despite their education, they agreed to be injected with a number of substances they had little knowledge of, made no inquiries about the substance and kept the injections from their team doctor and ASADA."

The ASADA CEO said that of the 30 ASADA testing missions during the period in question, none of the 18 players tested declared the injections, despite being asked each time whether they had taken any supplements.

"At best, the players did not ask the questions, or the people, they should have. At worst, they were complicit in a culture of secrecy and concealment," he added.

The news came 10 months after an AFL-led tribunal found the players not guilty of using banned substance thymosin beta-4, which was supplied to the 34 by the club's then-sports scientist Stephen Dank.

ASADA chose not to contest the decision; however the World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA) did, dragging the case out until Tuesday morning.

The 34 players will be prohibited from competing until Nov. 13, however captain Jobe Watson and now-retired Dustin Fletcher must serve a further eight days as they competed in the International Rules series against Ireland late last year.

The verdict has also brought into question the status of Watson's Brownlow Medal - the award for the AFL's best and fairest player - which he won in 2012 while the supplements program was in effect.

The AFL's preseason competition begins next month, with the regular season to commence on March 24. Enditem