Doping in Football

[toonotl 3110]

Based upon Wenger's few comments in the Le Equipe article it seems it may be an open secret of sorts.

 

I know Barca & Real Madrid were tied up with the Operation Puerto bust in Spain years ago, but nothing ever really came of it.

 

With FIFA's obvious layers of corruption, it wouldn't surprise me if there was an organisational level undertaking in place to simply ignore doping in football.

 

It's not just football, obviously, in my opinion, doping is widespread in most sports. For me, the only variance is how each sport's ruling body chooses to address it.

 

In cycling doping is faced relatively openly, athletics deals with it when it absolutely has to, and in football its largely ignored.

 

What do people think? Does it bother you that some players/entire teams are potentially cheating before a ball is even kicked?

 

* Don't come at me with the 'everyone does it' argument, because I will start talking about 'super-responders' and 'base line hematocrit levels', and nobody wants that.

[Park Life 71]

There are rumours that Maradona and Messi both took steroids when they were younger. I read somewhere that Messi had some kind of condition where he had to take them...

[toonotl 3110]

Yeah. I think that's pretty widely accepted that he did. Some sort of growth hormone because he was small. Fuck knows how short he would have been otherwise.

 

Never heard about Maradona though. The cocaine couldn't have done much for performance anywhere except in his own head.

[Park Life 71]

Yeah. I think that's pretty widely accepted that he did. Some sort of growth hormone because he was small. Fuck knows how short he would have been otherwise.

 

Never heard about Maradona though. The cocaine couldn't have done much for performance anywhere except in his own head.

That's right it was growth hormone. There was a period when Maradona bulked up really quickly and gained a yard in pace....iirc

[toonotl 3110]

Interesting about Maradona. Wouldn't be surprising in the least if he did. Steroids are such a stupid one though, they're so obvious relative to the other drugs, and not that helpful in football really.

 

I'm thinking more along the lines that there might be a widespread blood doping thing going on to increase anaerobic performance. One thing I have also noticed about footballers recently is how skinny they are. They are fucking really skinny, which could be related to drugs like clenbuterol. Clen strips weight, but more importantly it can be used as masking agent for next gen versions of EPO.

 

Wenger's comments to me seem like they were being said out of a little bit of frustration, and resignation to the fact that he's facing teams that cheat, and there's nothing he can do about it. Just my views on that. I could be totally off the mark obviously, but its just the sense I got from it.

[Park Life 71]

I'm sure it goes on and at top clubs but I think it's not wholly widespread. There were a lot of stories about Barca players not tiring in games but that might be cause they keep the ball a lot...

[Ayatollah Hermione 14052]

I fucking wish our players would take some performance enhancers, I tell you that.

[Tom 14013]

I think Bologna players were doping in the 1950s, can't remember who was at it in the 90s, might have been Parma...

 

I reckon it's going on everywhere personally...

[Dr Gloom 22147]

I fucking wish our players would take some performance enhancers, I tell you that.

[David Kelly 1260]

Yeah. I think that's pretty widely accepted that he did. Some sort of growth hormone because he was small. Fuck knows how short he would have been otherwise.

 

Never heard about Maradona though. The cocaine couldn't have done much for performance anywhere except in his own head.

Personally I've found that coke certainly enhances my performance.

[Kitman 2207]

Weren't there accusations Juventus doped their way to winning the European cup or something? Sure I read that somewhere

Edited November 13, 2015 by Kitman

[Dr Gloom 22147]

i think they're probably all up to it, tbf. the pace of the modern game is nuts. and the way the players are built now, compared to just 10-20 years ago is striking. is that all down to just modern techniques, or is there widespread use and complicity?

[Kitman 2207]

Just googled Juventus and doping. There's a doco that claims they doped their way to winning the 1996 european cup and various titles. Their club doctor was sent down in 2004 for routinely administering EPO. The scapegoat having been sacrificed nothing further was done to tackle the issue it seems.