One of my favourite podcasts, so I looked forward to listening to this, but after the full 9 minutes, I have to say I’m a bit underwhelmed, especially in relation to the title the podcast was given.
It’s a quite a superficial discussion I think.
The expert they speak to, who admits to working for liverpool previously, basically says a TUE asthma diagnosis wouldn’t help an athlete, so in that case why did they not then ask him about why this has allegedly been used significantly in professional cycling in the past - why would asthma treatments, and I’m not just talking an extra puff on a blue inhaler, be of benefit to them? An odd thing not to go on and ask.
He does then concede there may actually be some benefits in high doses, but dismisses that with an ‘oh but anti-doping tests would catch that anyway’, without going on to discuss the prevalence, reliability and/or success of anti-doping tests in professional football at all. Again, a bit odd imho.
Secondly they podcast then tracks down the source of the original info, but spends time suggesting his reputation is unreliable because he lives in Moscow now and has put some inaccurate social media comments about the Ukraine war, but nothing about why his comment on this matter may be doubtful.
They contact him for a comment, and he doesn’t reply … but then they also contact liverpool for comment and they also decline to give any response either.
All in all a bit unsatisfactory really.
Clip here anyway …
We debunk spurious rumours that Liverpool FC use asthma medication to enhance performance
www.bbc.co.uk