HEAD of the Australian Crime Commission John Lawler says the report on organised crime and drugs in sport released earlier this month was not overblown.  

Last week, COMPPS executive director Malcolm Speed said there had been a "hysterical" response to the report and suggested the Federal Government's should have handled the announcement differently.

However, Lawler said the report released on February 7 was "conservative", if anything, and not designed to begin a witch-hunt for those behaving unethically within Australian sport.

"Over time, as more information emerges, people will look back on the public announcement of the results of the year-long investigation and rationalise why things are the way they are," Lawler said in a Fairfax article on Monday.

Lawler also expressed concern over the link between illicit drugs, gambling and match fixing.

"What is new is the issue of performance and image-enhancing drugs, with many cases happening in the last couple of months," he said.

''We've got players using peptides and amphetamines and other illicit drugs and supplying it to other players and being introduced to criminals.

''The criminals get their hooks in and get information and this leads to match-fixing and other criminality.

"The supply of drugs to sportspeople by criminals is a very lucrative practice in its own right, but the real money is to be found in match-fixing."