- Richard Freeman at Bolton
- Mark Bonar
- Bernd Pansold at Red Bull
- "22 of the 35 players in Liverpool's squad are asthmatic – five times the UK average"
- Andrea Azzalin at Leicester under Ranieri and use of caffeine
- Hans Muller Wohlfahrt at Bayern and the German National Team
- Hoddle and his French Doctor at the 1998 World Cup with mysterious injections
- "Manchester City broke the Football Association's anti-doping rules three times in less than five months, the governing body has said."
If you look around the high levels of the game there is a mysterious cloud over the sport science that is taking place at many clubs around the world. Testing for banned substances is very limited and you could probably count the number of positive tests on one hand. But do the general public really care about the lack of oversight from the FA/Fifa about doping within football?
The long-term impact unfortunately probably won't be realised until it is too late.
"
Cardiovascular diseases were a more common cause of death among footballers than in the general male population in both the under 65-group and the above- 65-group (46.9% to 32.3% and 61.3% to 53.3%, respectively)."
Comments
1. Is there really "a mysterious cloud over the sport science"? You have listed eight instances of (suspected?) substance abuse. Are there more and if so would they be at a level that is statistically significant? There are 113,000 professional footballers on this planet and 265,000,000 amateurs. Is the level of drug abuse really any worse than is any other profession? I genuinely don't know the answer, but I don't think we should be making a knee jerk reaction if it's only a few isolated headlines.
2. Is there a link between the rates of cardiovascular problems in football and drug taking, or is it simply a question of footballers being in a profession that puts more strain of their hearts? My understanding is that lots of people have heart defects. Many of these will go through life with such defects going completely undetected. Perhaps we should expect that people in professions that test their cardiovascular systems to the limits a few are going to break down under that pressure.
1604 tests in the Premier League over a season seems to indicate each player on average in a 25-man squad gets tested about 3 times a year at most.
To the first point there is a lot more examples I could give at the top end of the sport, namely (https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/eleven-star-footballers-allowed-play-18788338) or Eufemiano Fuentes.
Behind most top teams in the sport there is talk of injections, TUEs and miraculous recovery from injuries.
Pep sending his injured Man City stars to see Ramon Cugat, suddenly coming back weeks before expected isn't something that can be a coincidence time after time.
I think the problem is that the perception of doping is off, there's no pressure to increase drug testing or improve it within football because people are happy that no-one is getting caught.
Any positive tests are waved through with TUEs and the money keeps rolling in.
It’s just a matter of a time before any unexposed drug problems in a sport come to light. Maybe it’s football’s turn next.
To think otherwise is, as @iainment said, naive.
It is obvious that footballers, rugby players and other sportsman are doping, its just a shame it is only cycling that gets dragged through the mud.
How do you think Milan kept all those guys going until they were nearly 40? What about the change in body type of Ronaldo and Bale in their mid 20s?
I know, for a fact, that a former Charlton chairman used to give the piss, not take it, as a school boy.
Steroids speed-up recovery of muscle injuries but how long do they need to be taken? Injury recovery and being 'match-fit' would be two different things.
Seeing players working out in the gym while recovering from a leg injury while on steroids to 'recover', then come back from injury in the best form of their lives.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51974891
Dr Chakraverty's position had come under intense scrutiny following revelations about his time as a medic at UK Athletics (UKA), when he was involved in a controversial procedure on four-time Olympic gold medallist Mo Farah.
He carried out an infusion of the legal supplement L-Carnitine on Farah before the 2014 London Marathon, but failed to record the levels.
"The time is now right to step away from this role and seek new challenges," Dr Chakraverty told BBC Sport.
Last month, a BBC Panorama programme about Farah's former coach Alberto Salazar found Dr Chakraverty had expressed reservations about possible "side effects" from the infusion, but went ahead anyway.
Football Association (FA) chairman Greg Clarke then revealed to BBC Sport that "internal conversations" were ongoing to do with Dr Chakraverty following the documentary.
In 2017, Dr Chakraverty was criticised in a parliamentary hearing by then UKA chairman Ed Warner for "inexcusable" conduct over his failure to record the L-Carnitine injections given to Farah.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-7740081/Premier-League-clubs-blocked-England-team-doctor-testing-stars-thyroid-conditions.html
"The England team doctor is alleged to have suggested screening squad members for thyroid and asthma-related conditions, only to be blocked by Premier League clubs.
Sportsmail has been told Dr Rob Chakraverty met the medical departments at several top clubs shortly after joining the Football Association in 2016 and proposed screening England players, raising suspicions he may have been seeking a medical requirement to legally offer performance-enhancing drugs.
All the clubs who met with Dr Chakraverty are understood to have raised objections and the idea was quietly shelved."
Guess where this man is at now? Disgraced and retired perhaps?
No he was hired by Wolves during the pandemic to help the players come back to full fitness.
https://trainingground.guru/articles/former-england-doctor-chakraverty-joins-wolves
Is that true about Liverpool? Which I assume means taking advantage of TUEs?
http://backpagefootball.com/why-liverpool-wont-win-the-premier-league-this-season/126313/
I would love to watch the Roidlympics, watching some pindick meathead chucking a discus 400m, Usain Bolt being obliterated as another guy runs the 100m in 4.7 seconds, people doing the long jump and flying clean over the sand at the end, would be a great laugh
Salbutamol, which is in inhalers, is a performance enhancer and is a banned substance without a TUE.
Probably says more about me to be honest.
Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Puyol and Pique.
Almost all of them played non stop at the top level for well over a decade. Incredible players yes, but it can't be coincidence that they all remained relatively injury free for so long playing 60 games a season with the demands of the modern day game. Messi of course is well documented as being allowed to use it as a youngster to aid his growth, and i'd be astounded if he wasn't still using it once turning pro. Is he still allowed it as a TUE?
From the age of 10 he's been receiving treatment for growth hormone deficiency. So has been receiving HGH since the age of 10.
Completely medically above board, just very interesting when it comes to his rise in the game.
He would naturally have a TUE for HGH due to his health condition.