Fairness has gone down the Dwain - Chambers and UK Athletics need to realise this

Dwain Chambers, a proven drugs cheat, has been wailing about his treatment by UK Athletics, after they reluctantly gave him a place in the Great Britain team for the World Indoor Championships.

UKA made it clear that Chambers was not welcome even though they picked him. In 2003 Chambers was banned from athletics for two years after admitting using steroids. Since then his career has been forever under a cloud of controversy including when he played a part in winning 4x100m gold at the European Championships in Gothenburg in 2006. But his inclusion in the indoor championship squad, announced on Tuesday, has sparked a wave of protests.

Kelly Holmes thinks that Chambers is an embarrassment to the sport and Steve Cram thinks that Chambers’ presence in the GB athletics team going to the indoor world championships is a canker, and he could, and should, be replaced by a young, clean, star – someone for the youngsters to look up to, a role model.

Sorry Steve - there is no such thing as a whiter than white role model; JFK, whilst giving sublime speeches to the world, was bed hopping like anincubus behind the scenes. Ask Ms Spears, one minute you can be a teen pin up, the next moment you can be sectioned in a mental health facility.

The world of sport is intensely uneven. There are a phalanx of American Football and Baseball stars with rap sheets and failed drugs tests. Indeed, the same time that Barry Bonds was claiming his innocence - Stan Lazaridis was being brought up on steroid charges for innocently using a treatment for his bald bonce.

And even football is atrociously unequal at times; head-butt a Raith Rovers player in the corner of Ibrox and you end up in Barlinnie Prison, head-butt someone in the World Cup final and you become a roving ambassador for the sport.

That Chambers made a woeful error in taking the designer steroid THG is undoubtedly true, but he has served his time, and although he will always be remembered as a drugs cheat, he should be allowed to compete if he is good enough, and crucially, clean enough.

Interestingly, Chambers has been an outspoken critic of drugs in athletics, claiming that steroid use was rife in the sport – and his abrasive attitude might have a lot to do with the fact that he is an outcast.

Chambers claims he has been treated like a leper. Holmes claims Chambers is an embarrassment. Cram thinks he should make room for clean role models.

And all three could well be right. We live in an oscillating see-saw of a world, life is unfair – and both sides of this argument need to realise this.

Chambers will forever be tainted by what he did – but ironically he can be a role model of sorts, to show youngsters what not to do. He has served his ban, he won’t be going to Beijing, his career is a question mark rather than an exclamation point, and it is all his fault – isn’t that enough punishment?

Should UK Athletics change their attitude to Chambers? Post a comment below or submit an article to Sportingo.