Doping in Soccer/Football

[The Hitch]

Switched on to the sports "news" channel to see if barca went through and the panel couldn't find enough compliments at how amazing and tremendous etc Messi was to come back from the injury he had, in a week, AND be the best player on the pitch when he did come on.

Must be some special wishing skills he has. He wishes an injury to go away and it does. If only Owen Hargreaves had that.

 

[Caruut]

Hargreaves was quite critical of the United medical department, wasn't he? Guess bits of it don't match up to the Bayern set-up. After all, not every doctor can inject crushed up rooster.

 

[gooner]

Hargreaves was quite critical of the United medical department, wasn't he? Guess bits of it don't match up to the Bayern set-up. After all, not every doctor can inject crushed up rooster.

Bayern knew what they were doing. After the 2006 World Cup when he was England's best player United wanted him badly, but Bayern fought tooth and nail to retain him at the end. He broke his leg shortly afterwards and missed a huge chunk of the season for Bayern in the end. Yet when United came back in the following the summer they had little or no resistance from Bayern this time. And Bayern don't sell their best players under no circumstances. Just look at Ballack who they left run down their contract. Hoeness always says no clubs dictate to Bayern.

 

[Caruut]

I agree United got played, but Hargreaves commented (after he joined City) that the medical department at United was amateurish. Makes me wonder what his experience of "professional" medical departments were.

 

[wansteadimp]

Which makes you wonder what Rio was running from if the Utd medical team was amateurish. I have to say before I found the Clinic I'd assumed he'd been on the puff big style and that was his concern.

 

[Parrulo]

Switched on to the sports "news" channel to see if barca went through and the panel couldn't find enough compliments at how amazing and tremendous etc Messi was to come back from the injury he had, in a week, AND be the best player on the pitch when he did come on.

Must be some special wishing skills he has. He wishes an injury to go away and it does. If only Owen Hargreaves had that.

you are not humble enough to understand the power of wishing, only saint messi is

 

[iejeecee]

Looks like Barcelona finally hit a wall.

If Bayern ever get bored of winning, they could easily pick up rugby or basketball.

 

[the sceptic]

Maybe Barca needs a new doctor. Or perhaps Bayern are just taking it to another level. Watching Ribery and Robben sprint up and down the sides for 90 minutes was pretty funny.

 

[Cyivel]

Pep hooked them up.

 

[Alphabet]

While I don't deny Barcelona/football in general is as dirty sewage, I think this particular defeat was more down to them (especially their defenders) not being very good rather than anything more sinister. I'm sure they've replaced Fuentes with somebody else and judging by how little time Messi spends out injured whatever new guy/stuff they're on is as effective as ever.

 

[Bernie's eyesore]

Looks like these German footballers have been up to no good.

 

[The Hitch]

Exactly what i was thinking lol.

Dont trust those germans for one minute, ****ing motherless hypocrites only go after cycling.

But on the other side one wonders whether theres been some behind the rooms stuff in spain.

 

[Benotti69]

I wonder are the Spanish worried about the German's testing them so arrive 'unprepared' but when in Spain will be fully 'prepared' for the games.

The Germans are obviously 'prepared' imo.

 

[the sceptic]

I cant watch any sport anymore without being in clinic-mode, hell even snooker im sitting there wondering if someone might be on the juice.

Anyway it was pretty obvious imo that the german teams were a lot more fit. Why? hard to say. Maybe Fuentes was really good at what he did?

 

[The Hitch]

I cant watch any sport anymore without being in clinic-mode, ?

Well in a sport like Football where there is next to nothing stopping people from doping, but enormous incentives to do so, it is delusional to think that there isnt heavy doping.

A footballer has 10 years to win what he can, make as much money as he can, rack up as much fame as he can.

Not only is the entire rest of his life based on those 10 years (whether he is doing commentary, or training 10 year olds on cold wet monday nights), the financial and class status of his entire family depends on what he acheives in those 10 years.

Cycling even tour de france winners end up just having their own bike shop. But make it in football, and your sons can be senators.

 

[the sceptic]

Yeah i have no doubt that at least all the big teams are running doping programs, its just that before i started reading this forum those thoughts didnt even cross my mind.

 

[iejeecee]

I wonder are the Spanish worried about the German's testing them so arrive 'unprepared' but when in Spain will be fully 'prepared' for the games.

The Germans are obviously 'prepared' imo.

I don't think there is doping testing at all in football. Or if there is, nobody is getting caught anyway, so they must all be clean....

 

[Armchaircyclist]

There was a funny story in my local newspaper recently. Two local athletes on the front page. One was tested regularly and had to give his whereabouts to doping testers all year. He is an upcoming star in cross-country skiing. The other was an established footballer with many games for the national team. He had hardly been tested in his career, and probably never in the off-season. He said he wanted to be tested more often.

The strange thing is that the sport that generates the big money (football) has no funding for any serious testing, while the much smaller XC-skiing can do lots of tests.

The only thing that could prevent doping in football, is that team-wide doping would include a lot of people, and some of them could be expected to eventually talk.

I'm quite sure many footballers have built muscles in the off-season doing steroids, but not too sure if they enter the games "juiced". Some might do their own private doping, but team-wide sounds unlikely, at least in Norway.

 

[iejeecee]

I'm quite sure many footballers have built muscles in the off-season doing steroids, but not too sure if they enter the games "juiced". Some might do their own private doping, but team-wide sounds unlikely, at least in Norway.

Since football is probably the biggest sport in the world, pretty much anything applies. There are going to be teams with doping programs, individuals doping themselves, clean teams, dirty doctors, clean doctors. Whatever you can think of can be applied to football simply by the law of averages.

Someone made a nice summary of documented cases in this thread some time ago.

And even if people talk, as several have done in the past, it is pretty much ignored in the mainstream press. Nobody wants to kill the golden goose.

Maybe if half a team dropped dead on the pitch, some of these so called journalists would find the courage to even approach this topic. But until then, football is as clean as a newborn baby.

 

[Samson777]

And even if people talk, as several have done in the past, it is pretty much ignored in the mainstream press. Nobody wants to kill the golden goose.
.

That's the point. I am sure there is quite a few out there who is serious about their responsibility as a journalist, but it seems like most of them are unemployed.

 

[The Hitch]

Since football is probably the biggest sport in the world, pretty much anything applies. There are going to be teams with doping programs, individuals doping themselves, clean teams, dirty doctors, clean doctors. Whatever you can think of can be applied to football simply by the law of averages.

Someone made a nice summary of documented cases in this thread some time ago.

And even if people talk, as several have done in the past, it is pretty much ignored in the mainstream press. Nobody wants to kill the golden goose.

Maybe if half a team dropped dead on the pitch, some of these so called journalists would find the courage to even approach this topic. But until then, football is as clean as a newborn baby.

I don't know if journalists would ever suggest dead athletes were doping.Its a taboo to accuse athletes of doping unless their governing bodies are willing to sacrifice them. And its a taboo in western society to say a bad word about the dead. Join the two together and,well...

 

[del1962]

I was watching someting on telly where they were saying that sports science improvements mean the average distance covered by a premier league footballler has increased over the last 7 years from about 9K to about 12K.

cryogenic chambers was offered as one improvement to aid recovery

 

[Swabian Lass]

I remember reading an interview with a footballer a while back (might even have found the link on here, but don't have time to look now). He was either Man U or Chelsea, I think. He talked about having so much surplus energy that he has to get up and go for runs at 3am. Oh yes, I thought. Surplus energy. Of course. I bet that they train at altitude too.

 

[Briant_Gumble]

I don't know if journalists would ever suggest dead athletes were doping.Its a taboo to accuse athletes of doping unless their governing bodies are willing to sacrifice them. And its a taboo in western society to say a bad word about the dead. Join the two together and,well...

Yeah whilst there are a few incidents like Mark Vivian Foe and Fabrice Muamba I don't think anyone will go there.

If there are more, it will have to come out though.

No one is shy of speculating that deaths of professional wrestlers are linked to PEDs even though some of these wrestlers leave considerable wealth behind.

The Internet is a good place for gathering momentum for these stories, the clinic is only one forum but if there is a lot of speculation on football forums then I think it might creep into newspapers and legitimate opinion pieces.

I would expect the next series of cardiovascular events by footballers to be blamed on hereditary conditions (some of them may well be). Bodybuilding is the precedent, the list if bodybuilders who suffered cardiovascular events that were the result of hereditary conditions is vast and much more frequent in comparison to the general population.

 

[The Hitch]

There was a hillarious piece on sky sports news today about how sports science has drastically improved the fitness of players over the last 10 years. They show a former pro claiming he smoked, drank as a footballer, then show "sports science today" with some super ice machines etc is

Apparently the average Premier league player runs significantly more in a game today than they did a decade or 2 ago.

No mention of medicine of course.

Wonder if for the next "documentary" sky will get some former pros to talk about how cyclists were always drinking and smoking before kerrison came along.