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Timeline of the 4-year Essendon supplements saga in Australia's doping debacle

Xinhua, January 12, 2016 Adjust font size:

Here is a timeline of key events in the Essendon Football Club supplements saga, which began in 2012 and ended on Tuesday when the Court of Arbitration for Sport announced that 34 past and present Essendon players would be banned from playing in 2016 for doping violations.

Feb. 5, 2013

Essendon self-reports to the Australian Sport Anti-Doping Agency (ASADA) and the Australian Football League (AFL) with concerns its players may have been administered with performance enhancing drugs following the club's supplement program in 2012.

Feb. 7, 2013

The Australian Crime Commission (ACC) releases its drugs in Sport report to the public which is dubbed the "blackest day in Australian sport." The report reveals Australian athletes were exposed to criminals who were dealing in performance-enhancing and image-enhancing drugs.

May 6, 2013

An internal Essendon report conducted by former Telstra boss Ziggy Switkowski concludes the Bombers had run "a pharmacologically experimental environment never adequately controlled or challenged or documented." Essendon chief executive Ian Robson later resigns saying: "We now know that a lot happened at this club in 2012 that just should not have happened. We let down our players and their families; how seriously we let them down is still a matter of investigation. There is no excuse in not knowing, and as CEO, I am accountable and I accept that accountability."

May and June 2013

Essendon players are interviewed by the AFL and ASADA.

June 24, 2013

Captain Jobe Watson appears on television and admits he was given the anti-obesity drug AOD-9604. "My understanding after it being given through (Essendon doctor) Bruce Reid and the club (was) that I was receiving AOD. (I believed) that it was legal at the time and that's what I was told I was being given," Watson said. However, the World Anti-Doping Agency had said in April AOD-9604 was banned.

Aug. 13, 2013

The AFL charges coach James Hird, club doctor Bruce Reid, football boss Danny Corcoran, assistant coach Mark Thompson and the Essendon Football Club with bringing the game into disrepute over the club's supplements program.

Aug. 27, 2013

The AFL hands down its punishment to the Bombers for bringing the game in disrepute citing poor governance. Essendon is banned from the 2013 finals after finishing eighth on the ladder; the coach James Hird is suspended for 12 months, the club is fined 1.4 million U.S. dollars and is stripped of its first two selections in the 2013 draft and a second-round pick in 2014. Corcoran is banned for six months, with two months suspended, while Thompson is fined 21,000 U.S. dollars.

June 12, 2014

The 34 current and former Essendon players are issued with show-cause notices by ASADA, alleging they were administered the banned peptide, thymosin beta-4, which promotes healing and the creation of new blood and muscle cells.

March 31, 2015

Essendon is found not guilty by the AFL anti-doping tribunal as it is not completely satisfied the 34 players took a banned substance during the supplement program.

May 12, 2015

WADA exercises its power and decides to appeal the AFL anti-doping tribunal's not-guilty verdict on the "Essendon 34."

Nov. 8, 2015

Essendon is charged by WorkSafe Victoria, a statutory authority of the Victorian state government, with breaching the Occupational Health and Safety Act in failing "to provide and maintain for employees a working environment that is, so far as is reasonably practicable, safe and without risks to health."

Jan. 12, 2016

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upholds WADA's appeal and finds 34 past and present Essendon players guilty of using thymosin beta-4. The players, including 12 currently listed with Essendon, are handed two-year suspensions back-dated to March 31, 2015 which will see them banned from playing in the 2016 season.

Five former Essendon players currently at rival AFL clubs will also serve two-year suspensions and will not compete in the competition this season.

In a statement, CAS said it found to its "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." Endit