Doping in Football: Fifty Years of Evidence

[BruceChatwin]

http://www.4dfoot.com/2013/02/09/doping-in-football-fifty-years-of-evidence/

A fascinating article on the history of doping in football I'd recommend finding the time to go through.

A subject currently pertinent due to this: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/cycling/2013/04/30/operation-puerto-blood-doping-scandal-spanish-doctor-found-guilty/2123489/ and in particular this:

But in a decision that drew criticism from some anti-doping officials, Judge Julia Santamaria also said that the more than 100 blood bags that were seized seven years ago when police raided Fuentes' Madrid clinics should be destroyed. That would rule out any possible investigations by the World Anti-Doping Agency and Spain's national anti-doping body, who have said they want to examine the bags to identify all the athletes involved.

A lot of accusations flying around about a cover up at the elite level of Spanish sport.

Andy Murray ‏@andy_murray 1m
operacion puerto case is beyond a joke... biggest cover up in sports history? why would court order blood bags to be destroyed?#coverup

In terms of football, Fuentes was previously linked to a number of top clubs in Spain, including Real Madrid and Barcelona, who he implicated in doping in an interview with Le Monde only to later testify on their behalf in a legal action both clubs brought against the newspaper in 2006. Last week, as he was leaving court, Fuentes was quoted saying he was still "interested in collecting a debt from Real Madrid," but that he couldn't answer what it was for (even though he claims never to have worked for them).

This article in the Huffpost that's tl;dr even for me probably makes some more salient points on this subject for anyone interested.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/luke-john/dopin-under-the-needle-but-above-suspicion_b_2662165.html?england-football

I was wondering anyway if all this was possibly pertinent to us, in respect of this quote taken from Gary Neville's autobiography:

When the 1998 World Cup started, some of the players started taking injections from Glenn’s favourite medic, a Frenchman called Dr Rougier. After some of the lads said they’d felt a real burst of energy, I decided to seize any help on offer. So many of the players decided to go for it before that Argentina match that there was a queue to see the doctor.

Anyone remember a certain Dr. Rougier floating around the CG?

[Reg Smeeton]

 I vaguely read about Fuentes this morning..and thought his sentence had all the makings of a cover up job. Real have always had influence at a high level in Spain.  I've always wondered about Leo Messi....when we're told he was so small as a kid that he was given growth hormone, in order to get him up to 5 ft 4 in.

[Crispy]

Very interesting read indead, time to expose Spain now.. 

[Ƭ̵̬̊: The Artist Formerly Known as CWIG]

Drug testing in football is quite frankly pathetic. I'd be surprised if most top footballers aren't taking something. If not some form of steroid then probably synthetic testosterone which may not even be illegal under the league rules.

[horlock07]

Fuentes made some quite specific allegations against Barca, Real and infact the Spanish national team at the time of his arrest, something along the lines that he could bring Spanish sport to its knees if he spoke the truth.

I think that with the bad press cycling (and especially spanish cycling) has it was seen as an opportunity to park it on cycling and try and gloss over any other sports involvement.

[Simon Pieman]

Drug testing in football is quite frankly pathetic. I'd be surprised if most top footballers aren't taking something. If not some form of steroid then probably synthetic testosterone which may not even be illegal under the league rules.

The bulk of the testing should be done in the off season in my opinion, that's when they'd most be on the juice.

[Ƭ̵̬̊: The Artist Formerly Known as CWIG]

The bulk of the testing should be done in the off season in my opinion, that's when they'd most be on the juice.

Not to mention the Charlie