Simona Halep managed to obtain a substantial reduction of the punishment in Lausanne, and the four years of suspension dictated by the ITIA turned into only nine months, so that since the beginning of spring the player regained her right to return to the court. He did it in only one tournament, the Miami Open, after which he withdrew or did not receive invitations to others.
Simona Halep and her lawyers, including Bogdan Stoica (right). Instagram photo
One of the player's lawyers, Bogdan Stoica, revealed how the strategy of Halep's team was built and said he is convinced that this case will radically change the world of sports. Simona's defense attorney revealed that several options were taken into account and the possibility that it was a matter of sabotage against the athlete was also studied.
“We read and tried to fit Simona's case into the casuistry with which other sports and tennis had faced. At the beginning I had absolutely all scenarios on the table. When I say all scenarios I mean not only contamination but also sabotage. Because we even thought about this, about sabotage. After I did the first hair tests in Paris, it became 100% certain that it was contamination”said Bogdan Stoica for the “I want to know” podcast.
The case will set a precedent in accidental doping cases
The defender of the player from Romania is convinced that this case will produce major changes in the world of sports, where this notion of “accidental contamination” has rarely been accepted. “It took a long time before we managed to discover the source. It was the most important thing in the whole economy of our file. In the absence of discovery of the source, you can only talk about a four-year penalty. The regulation provides by default (no – ex officio) four years. The case will create a precedent, which no other court will be able to ignore,” Stoica also said.
Even if Simona Halep is back on the field, the lawyer is not satisfied. “We consider that those nine months are undeserved. In the sense that the sanction that was applied could be lower. But you have to understand that there is an element of politics there as well and that the decision was given unanimously.
This means that including the expert appointed by ITIA (no – Ulrich Haas) agreed to the nine-month sanction, in conditions where, we can imagine, the other two arbitrators might have agreed to a much longer sanction smaller”Bogdan Stoica also said.
