A&H

Doping In Football

SM

The avuncular one
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/35952566

The head in the sand approach?

Why would a footballer want to take a programme of drugs designed to improve performance and give them a significant physical advantage?

There will be tears before bed time, me thinks.

:rolleyes:
 
The Referee Store
It does seem strange.

I think id accept my five year contract at 100k a week and they can deal with my overweight sluggish self.

I wonder who it is...

Having said that, Mr Vardy always looks a little like a German shepherd that's just been poked with a pointy stick.
 
I would be amazed if there isn't a good percentage of top level footballers at least nibbling the boundaries of what is legal within the sport. Especially as it seems that the governing bodies response is kitten soft and disbelieving.
 
Football seems to have managed to slip under the radar for a hell of a long time. Same as all team sports actually.

Anti doping agencies are so poorly run and funded, my enjoyment watching the olympics is severely damaged.

You know that a large chunk of the winners have pumped up with something then had a blood transfusion (very common in athletics)
 
I was reading a book on the subject ?steroid nation (think that was its name) and it covered the history of performance enhancing drugs in sport. It is fascinating.

First there was disbelief that these drugs actually worked, then there was lack of testing availability to confirm doping was happening, then there was potential damage to funding from sponsors pulling out if doping was highlighted in mainstream media. It's a mess and always has been a mess. But look at sprinters; you do not get faster as you approach 40!!!!!!!!! It's not rocket science to work out something untoward was happening.

My favourite snippet from that book talks about Olympic game officials doing doping tests in the early 80s. They did something called the sink test; ie the sample was poured down the sink! They were so far behind the curve that they just didn't bother, better not to know I guess. Publicly though, they had a drug cheat programme in place. :)
 
They do, but not sure what it is they test for.

My understanding is that it is not straightforward testing for performance enhancing substances given they are out of the body relatively quickly and those using them will no doubt have access to specialist advice around hiding what they are up to. :)
 
Ah ok.

When I was in the Army we had random drugs tests, they had to ban one weight loss/cutting supplement because even though the ingredients weren't on the banned substance list it had a masking agent in it, which shows up on the test and is a fail, at least as far as the Army were concerned.

In terms of things like cocaine etc most are out of the system within a couple of days, depending on whether you are a a heavy user and things like that.

I guess it's not in the Premier League's best interests to go all out on the drugs tests
 
Drugs such as cocaine, cannabis etc are far simpler to test for.
 
Football seems to have managed to slip under the radar for a hell of a long time. Same as all team sports actually.

Anti doping agencies are so poorly run and funded, my enjoyment watching the olympics is severely damaged.

You know that a large chunk of the winners have pumped up with something then had a blood transfusion (very common in athletics)

It's not quite as simple as having a blood transfusion. Firstly if the logic behind that was to work it would have to be an exchange transfusion in which the full bodily blood volume is replaced. That's a major procedure used in life threatening circumstances.

Secondly, it's not the primary drug that they often test for but the metabolites, so even if the person was to undergo a full exchange transfusion, the body would be producing the metabolite and therefore the 'new' blood would still test positive.

The transfusion method which Lance Armstrong used was not to replace positive blood, it was to increase his red blood cell count which increased the oxygen carrying ability of each RBC and allows more oxygen to be carried to muscle cells, and therefore more energy.
 
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