The Swiss 65-year-old former chief of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF), who spoke here on a panel session called "The role of sport: Advancing the international community to safeguard the future", explained the what needed to be done to eliminate corruption from sport, particularly in light of recent cases.

"Education, education, education," Oswald (pictured top) insisted.

"And of course very strict sanctions, so that people think twice before doing it [doping and match fixing].

"If you are a coach you should know you are out for life and then you will think twice before doing it.

"In doping we are just reviewing the world anti-doping code and the basic sanction will change from two years to four years.

"That places a lot of pressure on the athlete.

"Four years is pretty much the end of a career.

"And the idea is to include an Olympic Games.

"And hopefully we'll make people think twice before doping."

He did say, however, that these rules will apply only to "intentional dopers".


When asked if match-fixers should get lifelong bans he explained that it all depends on each individual case.

"You have situations where the player accepted to be the first one to score a goal on the pitch and they have the impression that it will not influence the result of the games, but it's the first step," said Oswald.

Oswald went on to say that, the first act is perhaps as significant as the final act in match-fixing, but does not always warrant a career-ending ban.

"This is why there are no insignificant acts as soon as you start cheating," he said.

"Everything can be a first step, but of course the sanctions should be proportionate and the first time, if it's not a very serious case, you should be punished but not for life."

He also spoke of the CAS' capacity to keep up with the number of cases and explained some of the challenges the organisation is facing, particularly with the high degree of football cases being dealt with by the court.

"The number of cases has increased a lot in recent years, especially since FIFA decided to recognise the court," Oswald said.

"So all the, for example, the litigation about the transfer money goes to CAS now.

"In the past doping represented 80 per cent of cases but now it is 50 per cent because all the other things are FIFA matters, disciplinary cases and transfer money.

"As the number of arbitrators increase, the number of cases increase so I'm sure CAS can cope.

"They will develop as long as they can and as long it's needed."

Oswald also explained that a change in information sharing rules from public authorities would allow the CAS to operate more efficiently.


"The problem in most countries is that public authorities will not give their files to private organisations and sport organisations are private entities and it's always difficult," he admitted.

"We have the case of the Austrian biathlete and cross country skiers at Turin 2006 where we wanted to get info from the Italian prosecutors and slowly we got information, it took a lot of time but in the end we got information after pressuring them, whether it was legal or not I don't know.

"We were able to disqualify these athletes two years later but the criminal case has not yet been charged in Italy.

"Some people say it should be done by the public authorities but that is not how it works, it is slow."

Oswald believes a cooperation between the CAS and public authorities would create a harmonised system to tackle crime in sport.

"But we should cooperate and we should give the info we have because possibly we also have information which could be used for law enforcement and they could give us the info they have," he said.

As a former Olympic medal winning athlete, Oswald also explained how would never have considered cheating to make it to the top of his game.

"For me, as an athlete, it was never a question to try to improve my performance with illegal means, it didn't even come to my head," he said.

"But we knew already at that time there we were competing [alongside dopers], the GDR [East Germany] was a leading federation, a leading country in sport, especially in my sport and we heard about blood manipulation and so we were aware there was some kind of doping around.

"But I never came to the idea that I could do it as well and maybe in a sport where you do it for yourself to prove something to yourself, there is no money at stake why would you cheat with yourself?

"What would be the satisfaction?

"You win but it's not you, it's the chemical product, which helped you to win.

"I've not interest in that."

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