When Will Football Have It's Drug Scandal?

[SpiritofBurnden]

Fortunately for Camelgob, climbing out of a toilet window and legging it didn't require a great deal of wit.

But he was banned for avoiding a test, so how did it benefit him?

 

[SpiritofBurnden]

Ok.you obviously live in a bubble so i'm out.

Well you've certainly won me over with your in-depth analysis.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

But he was banned for avoiding a test, so how did it benefit him?

Maybe it didn't occur to him at the time that he'd be banned for missing the test or he thought he'd get away with it. Or maybe he thought, being a rag and England international, that the rules wouldn't be applied.

Or maybe he literally took one for the team.

 

[FantasyIreland]

Well you've certainly won me over with your in-depth analysis.

There is no point discussing a topic with a person who will not accept there maybe an alternative outcome,or,God forbid,they may even be wrong.

The reasons for taking PED's have been explained,as has the possibility that such drugs can go undetected in the system through the use of other substances,namely masking agents.

You refuse to accept this is even a possibility.

 

[chesterbells]

Anyone who thinks that PED's aren't a problem in football is astoundingly naive in my view. The testing regime is woeful and there's an obvious benefit to being able to run around for 90 minutes.

I went to The Blizzard event at the Mcr Football Writers Festival last year and someone asked the 4 journalists on the panel about doping in football. There was a collective shuffling of feet and clearing of throats and they all looked at each other shiftily.

Anyone watching that could be in no doubt that they all knew something they weren't prepared to talk about.

Doesn't surprise me to read this, but it is insightful and significant

 

[chesterbells]

There is no point discussing a topic with a person who will not accept there maybe an alternative outcome,or,God forbid,they may even be wrong.

The reasons for taking PED's have been explained,as has the possibility that such drugs can go undetected in the system through the use of other substances,namely masking agents.

You refuse to accept this is even a possibility.

Agree with you, he's just refusing to see it. The benefits are clear, especially in the last quarter of matches when fatigue usually sets in, which would ordinarily affect a player's ability to perform a skill he could normally perform with a high degree of accuracy. It would also most obviously be of benefit to, say, an 'all action midfielder', the sort who 'gets all over the pitch and does the job of 2 players breaking up play' - I can think of one particular player who got lauded for that last year.

As I understand the testing regime in football is nowhere near it is in other sports - eg random testing 'out of competition', I'm also not sure that they don't sometimes just test for urine only, instead of blood and urine as in other sports. Footballers also don't have 'blood passports' in the way cyclists do for example - and even in that sport doping has been reduced rather than eradicated.
For me all footballers at academies or in the system, need to have such a passport from the age of 16, and they need to up the number of random tests, and expect players to be available under the 'whereabouts' rule 12 months a year. Part of their job and responsibility as professional sportspeople.

 

[SpiritofBurnden]

Agree with you, he's just refusing to see it. The benefits are clear, especially in the last quarter of matches when fatigue usually sets in, which would ordinarily affect a player's ability to perform a skill he could normally perform with a high degree of accuracy. It would also most obviously be of benefit to, say, an 'all action midfielder', the sort who 'gets all over the pitch and does the job of 2 players breaking up play' - I can think of one particular player who got lauded for that last year.

Because there's nothing to see.

Unless you think that an individual player would risk his career for the ability to run around a bit more in the last quarter of games?

Even if that were the case, the rest of the team would have to be doing the same thing for it to have any significant impact on the game.

That would involve everyone at the club from the players to the medical staff keeping quiet.

Either that or every one of them would have to leg it if the testers ever turned up at the training ground.

Perhaps they're just being naive.

 

[waspish]

When brown envelopes run out.

 

[FFPbegone]

Would taking PED's improve a footballer ?
All it would do is make you can run faster on the pitch but then it wouldn't make you more skilful or improve your decision making.
If running fast is all that is required to be good at football, all the 100m finalists would be snapped up.

 

[chesterbells]

Would taking PED's improve a footballer ?
All it would do is make you can run faster on the pitch but then it wouldn't make you more skilful or improve your decision making.
If running fast is all that is required to be good at football, all the 100m finalists would be snapped up.

Your skill level reduces with fatigue later in a match, so although it wouldn't make you more skillful, it would lessen your fatigue and thereby reduce your likelihood to make an error executing a skill on the pitch. Players run 10km a match.
Re your last point, agreed, although I have been told scouts looking at youngsters do primarily look at raw athletic talent - Adam Gemili was at Chelsea as a well known example. Its too late to snap up all the 100m finalists, but at a much younger age, that sot of thing in equivalence does happen.