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Matschiner given suspended prison sentence for role in blood-doping

published 11 October 2010

Mastermind behind Austrian blood doping scheme, including Kohl

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Bernhard Kohl at his anti-doping hearing in 2009. (Image credit: AFP Photo)

Stefan Matschiner has been sentenced to fifteen months prison for violation of Austria's anti-doping laws. Fourteen months of the term are suspended, and his time already served covers the other month.

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Matschiner was Bernhard Kohl's manager and helped Kohl and others undergo blood doping. At first the doping was carried out through a Vienna blood bank, and later through equipment which Kohl and other athletes financed. Kohl is serving a life-time ban after having tested positive for CERA at the 2008 Tour de France.

Judge Martina Spreitzer-Kropiunik found him guilty of attempted blood doping and the distribution of illegal doping products.

The trial had come down to a question of whether Matschiner had participated in the doping scheme after August 2008, when Austria's anti-doping law went into effect. Kohl testified at the trial that he received a transfusion from Matschiner in September 2008, which the manager denied.

Before the verdict was announced, Matschiner said he was happy to have the trial over, and that he would never be involved in the sports business again. “I will never come back, because it is so disgusting. Rather, I am happy that it has happened and that I can finish it off. This chapter is closed for me,” he said, according to ORF.at.