It is an in increasingly pertinent question and one that no doubt Sir Craig Reedie will be seriously contemplating should he take over as sport's drugs-buster-in-chief later this year.

The 72-year-old Glaswegian, who helped mastermind London's successful Olympic bid, is favourite to become the new head of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) at a crucial time when, according to the organisation's founding President Dick Pound, efforts to stop doping in sport are failing.

Pound claimed recently that the testing system misses four out of five athletes who dope. The highly-regarded Reedie, the former British Olympic Association chairman, is already an executive member of WADA Board and is leading the Evaluation Commission into the the bids for the 2020 Olympics on behalf of the International Olympic Committee.

His only rival for the job, Switzerland's Denis Oswald, appears to have ruled himself out with his decision to run for the IOC Presidency in September. WADA are due to elect a new President to replace current incumbent John Fahey, the former New South Wales Premier, in November.

Heading up WADA is now one of the most significant roles in world sport, with doping an ever-present menace in so many sports. We we do not need reminding of scandals in cycling and latterly in Jamaican sprinting to underscore that.

Where there's money, there's dope - and dopes. All ready and willing to take it, whatever the cost monetarily or medically.

British sprinting has survived a couple, of major drugs shocks - Olympic champion Linford Christie was thankfully in his athletic dotage when he was caught out and Dwain Chambers, though a household name with great potential, was not a world beater.

But I have often wondered what the effect would be if, heaven forbid,. someone of the stature of Jessica Ennis, Mo Farah or Bradley Wiggins has failed a drugs test during the Olympics. It would have plunged a dagger through the heart of British sport.

Now professional boxing, probably the sport with which I am most familiar, is currently caught up in an alarming drugs spiral that appears to have permeated here from the United States

Peeing into the bottle has become as much a required ritual in the sport as touching gloves before then final bell. With good reason.

No-one is suggesting boxing is suffering from a large overdose of the Lance Armstrongs, though there is no doubt it has a serious drugs problem.

The UK Anti-Doping Agency (UKAD) confirm that nine British professional boxers have been guilty of drug violations in the past 12 months - more than in any other sport.

Although the use of prohibited substances has been prevalent in US rings for some time, the sudden onset of pill-popping among British fighters is giving the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) cause for concern, especially as the drugs seminars they arrange are so poorly attended.

In the most recent case the Scottish super-middleweight Craig Windsor was banned following an anti-doping rule violation involving the use of illegal steroids. The 29-year-old, who has had 12 professional fights, was banned on information provided by heavyweight Larry Olubamiwu who was already serving a four-year ban after admitted to over a dozen counts of an illegal substance use, including EPO, human growth hormone and steroids.


Last year he befriended Windsor, another small-hall fighter, on Facebook and they discussed steroids. Olubamiwo then passed on the details to UK Anti-Doping. When Windsor later pleaded guilty, and was barred for three years and nine months while Olbamiwo's sentence was slashed.

His whistleblowing has earned him a 34 months remission of his a four-year ban, and he has successfully re-applied for his licence.

You may wonder how this can happen. Certainly, some in boxing do, and question the morality of it. Not everyone knows that WADA's code allows for up to a 75 per cent reduction in a ban for those whose evidence helps convict others.

Whistleblowing – snitching, grassing, call it what you will – is very much in vogue these days, as evidenced from the National Health Service to spooks, but at least the fight game has not made the 18-stone Olibamiwo, aka "The War Machine", a fugitive in the manner of the US intelligence officer Edward Snowden. Indeed, the boxer's reward is an astonishingly generous cut in sentence which enables him to return to the ring forthwith.

Apart from the former WBO world cruiserweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli - suspended for six months last year after testing positive for the stimulant methylhexaneamine contained in a dietary supplement - none of those caught are exactly bill-toppers.

But one huge marquee name has been swept up in the controversy, the former world light-welterweight champion Amir Khan, whose link with Victor Conte, the disgraced mastermind behind one of sport's most infamous doping scandals, has been questioned.

Conte founded Balco, a sports nutrition centre in California, and served time in prison in 2005 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute banned steroids, alongside a charge of money laundering. He admitted supplying performance-enhancing substances to athletes Chambers, Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery.


Newlywed Khan, 26, has admitted working with the "reformed" Conte's strength and conditioning team before his most recent bout against Mexican Julio Diaz in Sheffield. But he strenuously denies any drug use then - or in the past."I have never taken drugs, and I never will," he told the insidethegames. "It is against my religion and all my principles."

Conte, he said, was brought into his camp by new San Francisco-based coach Virgil Hunter. "He [Conte] introduced me to top track trainers who have helped me on my running, sprinting, breathing methods, my engine really, which is working my fitness."

Last December, it emerged that Khan had used supplements from Conte's company SNAC in preparation to face Carlos Molina, a fight which he won by a 10th-round stoppage. But he says these were cleared by the United States Anti-Doping Agency.

He maintains he no longer uses any supplements supplied by Conte "because I'm sponsored by the supplement company Maximuscle."

But his decision to retain Conte as part of his training team is criticised by UKAD whom say: "We strongly advises athletes to consider the risks of working with those who have actively supported doping in the past. We believe it is preferable to be supported and train in a clean sport culture where the values of sport are promoted and upheld."

Since his conviction, Conte also worked with three other world boxing champions - Andre Berto, Nonito Donaire and Zab Judah.

It is the second time that Khan has had to defend himself against whispers of an association with drugs. When he trained with Manny Pacquiao there were unfounded rumours of illegal pills and power potions being used in the camp - largely fuelled by Floyd Mayweather Jnr. "There was nothing in it," Khan insists. "The drugs rumours were upsetting but I can honestly say that I have never saw anything like that happening.

"I've never been approached to take anything and like alcohol it's something I will always stay away from, in or outside the ring. Drugs can destroy your career, ruin your life, and I am determined that is not going to happen to mine."

Although he is adamant has never been involved in drugs use Khan did face one fighter who was - American Lamont Peterson tested positive for synthetic testosterone after controversially defeating him in December 2011.


"Since the Peterson issue, so many fighters have been caught. But how many more are there out there? I'd never realised there were so many cheats in boxing.

"Boxers who take drugs put the lives of others at risk. I am a clean athlete and always willing to be tested anywhere, any time. I am in favour of random testing and blood testing because we need to clean up the sport."

At least the BBBofC has learned lessons. As general secretary Robert Smith points out: "We are part of WADA, work closely with the UK anti-doping authorities and have dramatically increased out of competition testing, which in some cases includes bloods."

Smith says that 951 British boxers were subject to random testing in 2012, at around £1,000 ($1,500/€1,120) a time, while championship-level fighters were also tested after every bout.

In America, however, there is no overall boxing board of control. Every state looks after itself and its drug policy.

Britain's ring cheats may be mainly undercard minnows, like heavyweight Ali Adams who tested positive after, would you believe, losing to Audley Harrison, but some big fistic fish have been ensnared in the international drugs net.

Among others who have been banned or admitted using illegal substances are former world champions Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Julio Cesar Chavez jnr, Roy Jones jnr, Shane Moseley, Antonio Tarver, Pernell Whitaker and Erik Morales, who once beat Pacquiao.

It is a little-known fact that Ukraine's WBC world heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko missed the 1996 Atlanta Olympics after testing positive for steroid use following an injury. Brother Wladimir took his place – and won the gold.

So far it does not appear to have spread to amateur boxing - Indian ring piun-up Vijender Singh, a Beijing gold medallist, was cleared in an out-of-competition test in April, along with four others, after an accusation of taking heroin.

And no boxer has ever failed a drugs test in the Olympics.

But as the sport moves ominously towards the realms of professionalism through World Series Boxing (WSB) and AIBA Professional Boxing (APB) there has to be an inherent danger of drugs use with the pursuit of big money now allied to glory.

Boxing's drugs ring is not one of confidence, as Sir Craig Reedie may be about to discover.

Alan Hubbard is a sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Games, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.