Sprint star Dwain Chambers, one of Britain's most high profile athletes, is back competing for UK Athletics under van Commenee after serving a two-year ban in 2003 for taking performance enhancing drugs but the BOA's policy means that he is unable to compete at the Olympics.

This ruling is in contrast to other National Olympic Committees, such as the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), who allow athletes that have returned from a drug ban, such as Athens 2004 Olympic 100 metre champion Justin Gatlin, to compete at the Olympic Games.

Van Commenee did not state categorically whether or not he supported the ruling but claimed that athletes in the UK such as Chambers have to obey the BOA ruling regardless of their thoughts on it.

"He [Chambers] can't compete at the Olympics so what I feel about this is not relevant," van Commenee said here at a Sports Journalist Association (SJA) lunch in Fleet Street.


"The fundamental thing is that everybody has to follow the rules regardless of what they think about them.

"When I am in my car, I stop if I see a red light and I pay taxes even though I don't want to because we all have to obey rules.

"UK Athletics takes its rules on drug bans at the Olympic Games from the BOA so we must follow that.

"What I think doesn't matter.

"If I was on the Board at the BOA, I may be able to do something about it and my opinion would matter.

"But I am not on the BOA Board so my opinion is not relevant."

The BOA lifetime drug ban policy has come under heavy fire from number individuals.

One of the most notable criticisms came last year when Andy Parkinson, the chief executive of UK Anti-Doping, claimed on insidethegames that the BOA was hampering his organisation's work because athletes refused to cooperate with them.

Parkinson claimed it would be easier and would ensure that more information would become available if everyone followed the standards set by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which have established a two-year suspension as the fairest penalty for an athlete testing positive for banned drugs for the first time.

BOA chief executive Andy Hunt hit back at the claims insisting that the lifetime ban complies with the WADA code and is overwhelmingly backed by athletes, even though it will keep top competitors like Chambers and Scottish cyclist David Millar out of London 2012.

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