Doping in Football
Doping in Football
Doping and English football.
It wasn't really an idea I had considered until the Rio Ferdinand scandal of 2002. As a 12 year old I really looked up to the international team as a whole and the saga made me think about the wider implications of drug use in the game.
Of course I knew about Maradona, but that was a galaxy away as far as I was concerned. As I grew up, the world got a lot smaller.
Fast-forward 11 years to 2013 and some things stay the same. For instance, Arsene Wenger is still the Arsenal manager, despite some pressure from the fans, and the best efforts of some of the more inept members of his squad.
Wenger has been calling for more stringent testing in football. He wants to replace urine samples with blood to ensure a better level of regulation.
He said 'we could go much deeper into control. I have no problem with doping, but we have to try to find out'.
A reasonable opinion, especially if we consider the case of his former player Kolo Toure, and his ban for taking 'dietary supplements'.
As an audience we deserve a level playing field. Football is fundamentally not sports entertainment despite the massive amounts of money involved.
Even though cheating is seen as a taboo in English football, it is naive to think it doesn't take place in some form.
All I can say is well done to Arsene for raising the topic after the Lance Armstrong scandal as it shows that it can be endemic in top level sport.
No comments:
Post a Comment