The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority has criticised the AFL's anti-doping tribunal over the timing – and content – of its verdict on Stephen Dank.

ASADA has only four full days to consider the material on Dank, who designed and oversaw the controversial injection program at Essendon in 2012-13, before the appeal window on the not-guilty verdict handed to 34 current and former Essendon players closes.

ASADA CEO Ben McDevitt Credit:Getty Images

The national sports anti-doping agency only became aware of the finding on Dank on Friday afternoon and, as reported by Fairfax Media this week, was already frustrated not to have received information it considered integral to its decision on whether to appeal considerably earlier. This was counter to an assurance ASADA CEO Ben McDevitt had received when the ruling onPortugal took a step nearer a humiliating multibillion-pound bailout by the European Union on Monday after Greece saw its credit rating slashed to a new low and speculation grew that eurozone leaders will fail this weekend to agree measures to prevent a repeat of last year's sovereign debt crisis.

The ratings agency Moody's cut Greece's credit rating by three notches to B1, which analysts said was deep into "junk" territory, sending the cost of insuring the country's debt soaring.

The downgrade, which was attacked as reckless and "completely unjustified" by the Greek government, highlighted the collapse in confidence among international investors who fear peripheral eurozone countries such as Greece, Portugal and Ireland cannot afford to repay their debts.

Greece, like Ireland, has already been forced to accept a rescue package put