A quarter of all sporting competi­tion has been infiltrated by corrup­tion, according to World Anti-dop­ing Agency (WADA) chief executive David Howman.

The WADA boss insists match-fixing, bribery and doping – tackled by WADA – are all inter-linked.

Howman, speaking at the Inter­national Centre for Sport Security’s ‘Securing Sport’ conference in Lon­don, said: “Twenty-five per cent of sport worldwide has criminal engagement.

“It’s information that’s given to us by law enforcement people. They’ve been telling us this now for a couple of years.

“The people who are distribut­ing and making a lot of money out of steriods – and not necessarily at elite level, even at kids – are the same guys involved in match-fixing and bribery and so on.

“I’m not talking elite level or Olympic level necessarily, I’m talk­ing about sport. Which sports are at risk? Any sport which wants to be open to being corrupted.”

Prior to WADA being established in 1999, it was questioned how widespread the use of perform­ance-enhancing drugs was in sport.

Enhanced testing has since shown the prevalence of doping and Howman suggested it would be wise for WADA’s model, which relies on cooperation between numerous parties, to be adopted in relation to other aspects to pre­serve sporting integrity.

WADA is still to learn the progress of its 16-month appeal against a Spanish court’s decision to destroy evidence relating to the Operacion Puerto trial. Dr Eufemi­ano Fuentes received a one-year suspended sentence for his part in running a huge sports doping ring and, following the trial, a court in Madrid ruled 200 blood bags and other evidence would be destroyed.