Doping in association football

Unlike individual sports such as bicycling, weight-lifting, and track and field, football (soccer) is not widely associated with performance enhancing drugs. Like most high-profile team sports, football suffers more from an association with recreational drugs, the case of Diego Maradona and cocaine in 1991 being the best known of those.

Incidence of doping in football seems to be low, but much closer collaboration and further investigation seems needed with regard to banned substances, detection methods, and data collection worldwide [cite web|url=http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=17870134|title=FIFA's approach to doping in football|publisher=British journal of sports medicine|date=2006|accessdate=2008-03-20] .

International Associations

FIFA

In the run-up to the 2006 World Cup, the FIFA Congress ratified the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code, being the last of the Olympic sports to agree to anti-doping [cite web|url=http://www.geneticsandhealth.com/2006/06/10/gene-doping-in-world-football-soccer/|title=Gene Doping in World Football|publisher=Genetics & Health|date=10 June 2006|accessdate=2008-03-20] . FIFA applies the minimum two-year ban for first-time offenders, however, there are exceptions. When a player accused of doping can prove the substance was not intended to enhance performance, FIFA can reduce the sanction to a warning in a first offense, a two-year ban for a second offense and lifetime ban in case of repetition [cite web|url=http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/s_457259.html|title=World Cup at a glance|publisher=The Associated Press|date=9 June 2006|accessdate=2008-03-20] .

UEFA

The European football union UEFA announced three doping cases for its competitions in the 2006-07 season, four less then in the previous season. The three positive findings compromised two cases of cannabis and one for a high concentration of Betamethasone at a Euro 2008 qualifier. In the 2006-07, UEFA carried out 1662 tests in and out of competitions, including 938 players tested for the blood doping substance EPO [cite web|url=http://www.uefa.com/uefa/keytopics/kind=1/newsid=635114.html|title=UEFA continuous doping fight|publisher=UEFA|date=11 December 2007|accessdate=2008-03-20] .

Doping cases and programs by country

Albania

KS Besa defender Alban Dragusha was suspended for 24 month by UEFA after testing positive on 19 July 2007 for a high concentration of nandrolone metabolites after a UEFA-Cup match in Belgrade [cite web|url=http://www.uefa.com/uefa/keytopics/kind=1/newsid=576703.html|title=Dragusha given doping ban|publisher=UEFA|date=29 August 2007|accessdate=2008-03-20] .

Argentina

Arguably the most high profile case of doping in world football is the one of Diego Maradona at the 1994 World Cup in the USA, who was immediately suspended and later sanctioned for 18 months for intake of ephedrine [cite web|url=http://portal.unesco.org/shs/en/files/10660/11725127711Speech_by_Dr_Dvorak.pdf/Speech%2Bby%2BDr%2BDvorak.pdf|title=International Convention against Doping in Sport|publisher=UN|date=5 February 2007|accessdate=2008-03-20] . Maradona was also suspended for 15 months in 1991 after a failed doping test for cocaine while playing for Napoli in Italy. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/607919.stm|title=Maradona seeks treatment in Cuba|publisher=BBC News|date=18 January 2000|accessdate=2008-10-04] .

Australia

In January 2007, Stan Lazaridis, playing for Perth Glory, returned a positive drug test for prescription alopecia medication, which is banned due to its potential as a masking agent for other performance-enhancing substances. He was found guilty by Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority and was given a 12-Month suspension from football.He had not taken the prohibited substance to mask a performance enhancing drug but for legitimate therapeutic purposes as prescribed by his doctor. The Tribunal however held that an Anti-Doping violation had occurred and ordered the player ineligible to play for 12 months, backdated to the date of his positive test [cite web|url=http://www.a-league.com.au/default.aspx?s=hal_newsdisplay&id=18986|title=Lazaridis handed one-year suspension|publisher=A-League|date=27 August 2007|accessdate=2008-03-20] .

East Germany

Unlike other sports in the former GDR, football did not have a government-run doping program due to the fact that football was not seen as internationally successful enough to justify the expense. Doping was carried out sporadically in football and from 1985, doping tests were carried out to prevent this practice. Manfred Höppner, head of the East German sports medicine department, accused the BFC Dynamo Berlin and 1. FC Lok Leipzig of doping. According to his statement, in October 1983, when both teams traveled abroad for European Cup matches, a test revealed high traces of Amphetamine and Methamphetamine in thirteen of nineteen "Dynamo" players, administered only 2-3 days before. In Lok's players, only slight traces were found and only on some players [cite web|url=http://www.focus.de/sport/mehrsport/doping-opfer_aid_145980.html|title=Doping-Opfer:Werder Bremen gegen Lok Leipzig (in German)|publisher=Focus Online|date=1994|accessdate=2008-03-18] . Falco Götz, a former "Dynamo" player and later manager in the German Bundesliga for Hertha BSC Berlin and 1. FC Nuremberg, denied any active knowledge but admitted to having been administered substances declared to be vitamines in his active time with the club [cite web|url=http://www.abendblatt.de/daten/2007/06/18/757608.html|title=Doping-Gerüchte weiten sich aus-Dynamo Berlin am Pranger (in German)|publisher=Hamburger Abendblatt|date=18 June 2007|accessdate=2008-03-18] [cite web|url=http://www.1asport.de/sport/fussball/Dynamo_Berlin_wieder_unter_Doping_Verdacht_om_46128N.html|title=Dynamo Berlin wieder unter Doping-Verdacht (in German)|publisher=1asport.de|date=18 June 2007|accessdate=2008-03-18] .

England

So far, not a single Premiership player has ever tested positive for using performance-enhancing drugs in a league match. According to a statement of one of UK Sport's Independent Sampling Officers (ISO), "If a club knows in advance we're coming, and the club suspects one of their players, they keep him off training and his name doesn't appear on the list I am given". In the 1999-2000 season, testers were present at just 32 of the 3,500-plus league games, taking samples from two players of each side. Compare to other sports in the UK, like cricket or athletics, footballers are far less likely to be tested [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/3170586.stm|title=Football's anti-doping flaws|publisher=BBC Sport|date=7 October 2003|accessdate=2008-03-18] . A case of high profile was the one of Rio Ferdinand, who missed a drug test in September 2003 and found himself punished for it, being banned for eight months [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/3333091.stm|title=Ferdinand banned for eight months|publisher=BBC Sport|date=19 December 2003|accessdate=2008-03-18] .

In the 2002-03 season, Rushden & Diamonds goalkeeper Billy Turley was let off with a mere warning after being found to have taken the anabolic steroid nandrolone [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/3334255.stm|title=How the FA must change|publisher=BBC Sport|date=20 December 2003|accessdate=2008-03-20] . He was later banned for six months for testing positive for cocaine, which is deemed to be a recreational drug, becoming the first and only player so far to be banned after a domestic league match.

Middlesbrough's Abel Xavier was banned in November 2005 from football for 18 months by UEFA for taking anabolic steroids after testing positive for dianabol after a UEFA Cup match on 29 September 2005. He is the first player in Premiership history to be banned for using performance-enhancing substances, as opposed to recreational drugs [cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20051124/ai_n15879827|title=Football: Xavier hit with 18-month ban for steroid use|publisher=The Independent|date=24 November 2005|accessdate=2008-03-20] .

Adrian Mutu of Chelsea was banned after he tested positive for cocaine in the 2003-2004 season. He was banned for 7 months and was subsequently sacked by Chelsea. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/chelsea/7440416.stm|title=Mutu lodges appeal over damages|publisher=BBC Sport|date=05 September 2008|accessdate=2008-10-04] .

France

Jean-Jacques Eydelie, who played for Olympique Marseille in the 1-0 final victory over AC Milan in Munich in the 1993 Champions League final, said in the L'Equipe magazine in January 2006, that he and several team-mates received injections before the match, implying premeditated doping. Former Marseille president Bernard Tapie has taken legal action over articles suggesting players were given doping substances [cite web|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2006/01/25/sfneur25.xml|title=Tapie takes legal action over doping allegations
publisher=Telegraph|date=25 January 2006|accessdate=2008-03-20] .

Germany

Peter Neururer, a coach in the German Bundesliga, accused players of his former club FC Schalke 04 of doping, alleging that almost all players in the club in the late 1980s took Captagon, an illegal substance in most countries, including Germany. Jens Lehmann, then a young player with the club, confirmed the allegations. The German football association DFB requested Neururer to release names of players involved in doping [cite web|url=http://sport.ard.de/sp/fussball/news200706/13/neururer_doping_auch_im_fussball_der_80er_jahre.jhtml|title=Doping auch im Fussball (in German)|publisher=ARD|date=13 June 2007|accessdate=2008-03-17] . The "FC Schalke 04" has denied the allegations. Two former team doctors of Eintracht Braunschweig confessed administering Captagon to players of the club in the 1970s and 80's [cite web|url=http://www.abendblatt.de/daten/2007/06/18/757608.html|title=Doping-Gerüchte weiten sich aus (in German)|publisher=Hamburger Abendblatt|date=18 June 2007|accessdate=2008-03-18] .

Germany national coach Joachim Löw insisted he has never seen an example of drug-abuse in German football [cite web|url=http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=6&click_id=4&art_id=nw20070527152705889C855272|title= There is no doping in football in Germany|publisher=IOL|date=27 May 2007|accessdate=2008-03-20] .

Doping tests have been carried out in the Bundesliga since 1988 and after selected games two players are chosen at random to provide a urine sample. In the 2006-07 season, tests were carried out after 241 of 612 first and second division games. Since 1995, 15 players from the Bundesliga's first and second divisions have been accused of doping offences [cite web|url=http://www.soccerway.com/news/2007/June/13/bundesliga-coach-admits-he-saw-doping/|title=Bundesliga coach admits he saw doping|publisher=soccerway.com|date=2007|accessdate=2008-03-17] .

Italy

In Serie A, Inter Milan's Mohamed Kallon and Parma's Manuele Blasi have been banned after testing positive for nandrolone in September 2003 [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/3334255.stm|title=How the FA must change|publisher=BBC Sport|date=20 December 2003|accessdate=2008-03-20] .

According to the "Gazzetta dello Sport", the death of four former Fiorentina players over the past 19 years were suspicious. Pino Longoni died at the age of 63 after suffering from an irreversible degenerative illness which narrowed the arteries in his brain, Bruno Beatrice died of leukaemia in 1987 aged 39, Nello Saltutti died after suffering a heart attack in 2003 aged 56, and Ugo Ferrante died in November 2004 of cancer of the tonsils aged 59. The Italian newspaper claimed their illnesses may have been brought on by Cortex and Micoren, drugs that were allegedly administered by Fiorentina's medical staff in the 1970s. However, Turin prosecutor Raffaele Guariniello, who has led Italy's fight against drug-taking in sport since 1998, said without hard evidence the Gazzetta's claims that the deaths might be linked to doping were presumptuous [cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/sport/content/200603/s1599629.htm|title=Former Fiorentina player's death raises doping suspicions|publisher=ABC sport|date=24 March 2006|accessdate=2008-03-20] .

pain

The French paper Le Monde alleges that in the course of investigating Operation Puerto, a doping bust primarily focused on cycling, extensive documentation was found of "seasonal preparation plans" for Real Madrid and FC Barcelona that include notation suggesting doping practices. [http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2006/dec06/dec08news]

External links

* [http://www.thefa.com/TheFA/SportsMedical-ExerciseScience/HealthProgrammes/default.htm The FA Drug Testing Programme (2003)]
* [http://www.uefa.com/newsfiles/631553.pdf The World Anti-Doping Code-The 2008 Prohibited List]

ee also

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References