MELBOURNE - Thirty-four Australian Football League (AFL) players Thursday instructed their lawyers to appeal a Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling banning them for doping offences.
34 past and present Australian Football League players from Melbourne-based Essendon club were slapped with 12-month bans in January
The past and present players from the Melbourne-based Essendon club were slapped with 12-month bans in January for using the substance thymosin beta-4 in a case that sent shockwaves through the sport.
The court decision upheld a World Anti-Doping Agency appeal against an AFL tribunal ruling last March that cleared the players after examining the club's player supplements and sports science programme.
The AFL Players' Association (AFLPA) said its legal team had instructed Swiss lawyers to lodge the appeal papers with the Swiss Federal Supreme Court later on Thursday.
"The appeal has been made on the grounds that the CAS erred in determining that the World Anti-Doping Agency appeal should be conducted as a de novo hearing," AFLPA chief executive Paul Marsh said at a press conference.
"That is, WADA should only have been allowed to appeal the unanimous decision of the AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal on grounds of either legal error or that it was grossly unreasonable."
The appeal process is likely to take several months and Marsh said the players were not seeking an injunction, meaning the 17 still at AFL clubs would remain suspended. The AFL season begins in March.
"The appeal is not about an immediate return to football for the players involved, but rather it is about obtaining a just outcome and clearing their name," he said.
In its ruling, the court ruled it was "comfortable" that the AFL doping code had been violated "and found by a majority that all players were significantly at fault".
The players were accused of using a prohibited peptide thought to aid recovery from injury during the 2012 season in a programme led by controversial sports scientist Stephen Dank, who is appealing against a life ban imposed last year over his role in the scandal.
They claim they were the victims and not the perpetrators.