WENGER IS RIGHT – FOOTBALL CONTINUES TO TURN A BLIND EYE TO DOPING
The severe lack of testing in world football
has made it easy for potential drug cheats
to continue playing - even at the highest
level
Arsenal lost to Dinamo Zagreb on
Champions League matchday one and
Arsene Wenger would prefer to see the
result annulled. The reason? Arijan Ademi,
the Dinamo Zagreb vice-captain, was
handed a four-year ban by Uefa's
Disciplinary Commission last week after
testing positive for a prohibited substance
while playing in that famous win in
October.
That Ademi's ban stemmed from a match
against Arsenal means its effect is
amplified because no individual within
football has spoken out as much about
doping than Wenger - including again in
the press conference ahead of Arsenal's
return match at the Emirates against
Dinamo.
This time, Wenger declared that Uefa's
failure to mete out collective punishments
for individual doping transgressions was
effectively an endorsement of doping
practices.
“You cannot say ‘OK, they had a doped
player and the result stands'," he told
reporters. "That means you basically
accept doping. But it is the rule and we
accept that."
In response to Wenger's accusation, a Uefa
spokesperson told Goal: "Uefa's Anti-
Doping regulations regarding the
consequences for teams for doping
offences are strictly in accordance with
Article 11 of the WADA Code that states that
"where more than one team member in a
team sport has been notified of a possible
anti-doping rule violation the team shall be
subject to target testing for the event. If
more than two team members in a team
sport are found to have committed an anti-
doping rule violation during the event, the
team may be subject to disqualification or
other disciplinary action.""
Dinamo have taken the stance that their
man has done nothing wrong - that he was
somehow the victim of a contaminated
substance and fully intend to challenge
Uefa's finding at the Court of Arbitration
for Sport in the coming months.
"Ademi and experts proved his supplement
was contaminated with a prohibited
substance and he didn't know what kind of
supplement he was using," Dinamo coach
Zoran Mamic said.
"That is why I can't understand this
decision made by Uefa. A four-year
suspension is stupidity."
That line of defence - the contaminated
substance excuse - has been heard before
when it comes to positive tests. The fact
remains, though, that participants in any
sport should be ultimately responsible for
any substance which is put into their
bodies. And players know it.
Writing for the British Journal of Sports
Medicine in an article entitled 'Challenges
and Threats to Implementing the Fight
Against Doping in Sport' Fifa chief medic
Jiri Dvorak said: "In the mid and late 1990s,
nutritional supplements gained immense
popularity among professional as well as
also recreational athletes, and an alarming
number of positive doping cases for drugs
such as nandrolone were reported in
different sports including football.
"Athletes attributed their positive steroid
cases to the intake of nutritional
supplements contaminated with
nandrolone or other anabolic steroids.
"A careful examination of more than 600
nutritional supplements by the WADA-
accredited laboratory in Cologne
supported this claim as 15% of the samples
analysed contained anabolic androgenic
steroids not reported on the label. Of great
concern was the finding that the majority
of contaminated nutritional supplements
were freely available from fitness clubs,
health-food stores and the Internet."
"Following the publication of these results,
the IFs, led by the IOC and Fifa, launched
an educational campaign warning athletes
to avoid nutritional supplements that were
not approved by relevant national
regulatory bodies.
"This message was reinforced by a
consensus statement that reaffirmed the
view that there was no evidence of
ergogenic effects of dietary supplements
(ie, a positive effect on health or
performance) and strongly discouraged the
indiscriminate use of any nutritional
supplements.
"It was recommended that nutritional
supplements should only be taken if
advised by qualified sports nutrition
professionals."
So what did Dinamo make of that report?
And if Ademi is unaware of the possibility
of contamination, then how many other
players are out there lumbering under
false pretences of what they themselves -
or their doctors for that matter - are
putting in their bodies?
has made it easy for potential drug cheats
to continue playing - even at the highest
level
Arsenal lost to Dinamo Zagreb on
Champions League matchday one and
Arsene Wenger would prefer to see the
result annulled. The reason? Arijan Ademi,
the Dinamo Zagreb vice-captain, was
handed a four-year ban by Uefa's
Disciplinary Commission last week after
testing positive for a prohibited substance
while playing in that famous win in
October.
That Ademi's ban stemmed from a match
against Arsenal means its effect is
amplified because no individual within
football has spoken out as much about
doping than Wenger - including again in
the press conference ahead of Arsenal's
return match at the Emirates against
Dinamo.
This time, Wenger declared that Uefa's
failure to mete out collective punishments
for individual doping transgressions was
effectively an endorsement of doping
practices.
“You cannot say ‘OK, they had a doped
player and the result stands'," he told
reporters. "That means you basically
accept doping. But it is the rule and we
accept that."
In response to Wenger's accusation, a Uefa
spokesperson told Goal: "Uefa's Anti-
Doping regulations regarding the
consequences for teams for doping
offences are strictly in accordance with
Article 11 of the WADA Code that states that
"where more than one team member in a
team sport has been notified of a possible
anti-doping rule violation the team shall be
subject to target testing for the event. If
more than two team members in a team
sport are found to have committed an anti-
doping rule violation during the event, the
team may be subject to disqualification or
other disciplinary action.""
Dinamo have taken the stance that their
man has done nothing wrong - that he was
somehow the victim of a contaminated
substance and fully intend to challenge
Uefa's finding at the Court of Arbitration
for Sport in the coming months.
"Ademi and experts proved his supplement
was contaminated with a prohibited
substance and he didn't know what kind of
supplement he was using," Dinamo coach
Zoran Mamic said.
"That is why I can't understand this
decision made by Uefa. A four-year
suspension is stupidity."
That line of defence - the contaminated
substance excuse - has been heard before
when it comes to positive tests. The fact
remains, though, that participants in any
sport should be ultimately responsible for
any substance which is put into their
bodies. And players know it.
Writing for the British Journal of Sports
Medicine in an article entitled 'Challenges
and Threats to Implementing the Fight
Against Doping in Sport' Fifa chief medic
Jiri Dvorak said: "In the mid and late 1990s,
nutritional supplements gained immense
popularity among professional as well as
also recreational athletes, and an alarming
number of positive doping cases for drugs
such as nandrolone were reported in
different sports including football.
"Athletes attributed their positive steroid
cases to the intake of nutritional
supplements contaminated with
nandrolone or other anabolic steroids.
"A careful examination of more than 600
nutritional supplements by the WADA-
accredited laboratory in Cologne
supported this claim as 15% of the samples
analysed contained anabolic androgenic
steroids not reported on the label. Of great
concern was the finding that the majority
of contaminated nutritional supplements
were freely available from fitness clubs,
health-food stores and the Internet."
"Following the publication of these results,
the IFs, led by the IOC and Fifa, launched
an educational campaign warning athletes
to avoid nutritional supplements that were
not approved by relevant national
regulatory bodies.
"This message was reinforced by a
consensus statement that reaffirmed the
view that there was no evidence of
ergogenic effects of dietary supplements
(ie, a positive effect on health or
performance) and strongly discouraged the
indiscriminate use of any nutritional
supplements.
"It was recommended that nutritional
supplements should only be taken if
advised by qualified sports nutrition
professionals."
So what did Dinamo make of that report?
And if Ademi is unaware of the possibility
of contamination, then how many other
players are out there lumbering under
false pretences of what they themselves -
or their doctors for that matter - are
putting in their bodies?
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