Doping in football

bit.ly/WpBEz7 Reminder that current drug doctor Fuentes currently under investigation "worked with Barca + Madrid" accrdng to LeMonde

"Fuentes was paid 342,000 euros to provide Real Sociedad substances - link"

With football's doping precautions almost non existent, can we finally start talking about odd things happening in football in recent years?

What's often overlooked is that Messi is not only a better footballer than everyone else - but a far more supreme physical athlete. Physically, Messi looks just light years ahead of competitors. Acceleration, power, stamina - is it too much? All these goals?

When Barry Bonds and McGuire were throwing baseball records into outer space everyone now feels stupid for not guessing what was going on. Now looking at these ridiculous "super human" records Messi is achieving - mixed with the complete lack of meaningful drug testing in football, surely it's time we start thinking about this? Messi's injury record also...

The doctor at Brescia when Guardiola was caught using nandrolone, worked as the head doctor at Barca under Pep.

Xavi is an interesting case. Formerly an injury prone player, and not known for athletic ability early in his career is now a player who rarely misses a game a season, then plays for Spain in the summer, never seems to tire in games.

Dr Fuentes (the doctor at the centre of a cycling doping ring with links to Barca/Madrid) has said that he hasn't been able to speak previously about working with top football clubs because "threats made against family"

Would we really be surprised by FIFA ignoring this? The organisation is rotten to the core - bribery scandal proves that.

"If I would talk, the Spanish football team would be stripped of the 2010 World Cup" - Eufemiano Fuentes

"There are sports against which you cannot go against, because they have access to very powerful legal means to defend themselves" - Fuentes

With recent develpmnts, footballs lack of testing - how can we not look at extraordinary physical achievements of certain players/teams?

Angel Heredia - athletics drug maestro has come out to say plenty of football players came for his services.

Chelsea's famous "blood-spinning" technique involves removing blood,and calcium and the enzyme thrombin are added before the resulting gel is injected back into the wound. It heals injuries 5 times quicker, and contains non natural processes.

The man in charge of this blood-spinning at Chelsea under Mourinho was former UK Athletics doctor.

Barca players lack-of-tiredness even at the end of games+E.T even more amazing considering they play high intensity pressing game.

"The documents, in Dr Fuentes' handwriting, allegedly detail the preparation plans for the Barca+Mardrid for the 2005-2006 seasons. The plan showed that the main objective of FC Barcelona was the Champions League in May, which it won, as well as peaking for the WC. The training programs include circles and 'IG' symbols that correspond to preparation or rest periods. These are the same symbols used by Dr Fuentes in his plans for the Liberty Seguros riders, according to Le Monde. The Spanish Guardia Civil believe that these symbols correspond to anabolic steroids (circle) and Insulin Growth Factor - IGF-1 (IG). Other symbols are used in the team plans, including a rounded 'e', and a circle with a dot in it. These are supposed to correspond to blood transfusions and the administration of EPO. Some individual players had tailored programs''

It's clear to anyone, with this and Real Sociedad, Spainish football at the top is at least rife with doping. The current trial of Dr Fuentes is only for his involvement in cycling and the judge has ruled no football teams are permitted to be named.

Even In 1999 Emmanuel Petit claimed that players were turning to doping.

Luis Garcia Del Morel, who once worked with Lance Armstrong, was on the books of Barcelona as a "medical consultant". Del Morel, who along with Lance Arstrong was given a lifelong ban, also worked "unofficially" with Valencia FC.

Del Morel: "Cyclists were angels compared to footballers"

1998: Roma coach Zdenek Zeman gave an interview in which he claimed there was 'widespread use' of performance-enhancing drugs in Seria A.

Yet even after all these warning signs over the years, FIFA/UEFA have done precisely zero to implement any serious drug testing policy.

Jesus Manzano - former cyclist and famous whistleblower - said he saw a Real Madrid player while visiting Dr Fuentes.

In an interview with Le Monde 2005 - Dr Fuentes said he's worked with La Liga clubs and players, sometimes directly and sometimes just "sharing his knowledge" with the club's own doctors

F.C Barcelona twice tried to hire Dr Fuentes in 1996 and 2002 - both times he declined.

"I saw well-known footballers [being treated by Fuentes], but I cannot say how many," - Jesus Manzano

Speaking on "Operation Puerto", chief doping doctor Fuentes says "There have been only selective leaks. I am indignant about that."

Namely, only cyclists names were released from the files of Operation Puerto, even though Fuentes treated all athletes from all over world.

Dr Fuentes said "only 30% of my clients were cyclists" so why is cycling the only sport to ban athletes after the investigation?

Zinedine Zidane, who admitted to taking creatine while at Juventus, advised Johnny Hallyday to visit Dr Fuentes clinic.

Cast mind back to WC 06 - 34 yr old Zidane surprised many with his sudden new found energy. In qualifier matches he was slow and ponderous. Now we know Zidane had clear links with Fuentes his sudden all-action performances at WC 06 come into question. Zidane's endurance and power took a clear leap during that WC - in other sports this is always a warning sign. In football, it's romantic.

Wenger, 2004, stated publicly signings he makes from the continent test abnormally for high red blood cells (EPO). What did the football world do? What they always do, ignore it.

Wenger claimed some players may be "doped without their knowledge". This was the claim of Edgar Davids and Jaap Stam, who were both banned. Ronaldo was in trouble with Italian authorities for a "forbidden blood tranfsusion" he underwent, to heal an injury quicker.

UCI (cycliing) president only got the names of dopers from Spanish authorities because he "pushed the issue". Other sports didn't bother.

250 bags of blood were seized from Dr Fuentes, no inventory was ever called for by Spanish Judge, and most bags have now perished. What we saw in Spain was a complete breakdown of authority to regulate doping, even in the courts, that is still absent today.

Doping in football has been staring people in the face for years yet no one has done anything to even begin to look at it. Ultimate taboo.

When Spanish authorities finally had ACTUAL bags of blood, quite possibly from football players sitting there - football didn't investigate. Even with all Dr Fuentes public links with top clubs and top players, football didn't care to investigate when they had the chance.

José Luis Astiazarán, the current president of the Spanish Football League, was one of the Real Sociedad presidents accused by Badiola of overseeing payments in his time to Dr Fuentes for doping services. Sociedad finished second in one of those years. Astiazarán is now denying any knowledge of this. Ye Badiola claims he has emails and letters sent from club doctors asking for permission. I believe if Badiola (Real Sociedad president 2008) is proved correct, the current head of Spanish football's position will be untenable.

Spanish civil guards (who wanted to continue football investigation but were called off by Judge Serrano) confirmed in todays trial that documents seized in 2006 showed the client 'Rsoc' (real sociedad) and the abbreviation "IG" - normally meaning growth hormone. The same abbreviations that Le Monde, in 2006, claimed Dr Fuentes had on his personal Barcelona and Real Madrid 'doping plan'.

Badiola implies that Astiazaran became head of LFP (Spanish FA) to shelter him from recriminations with his time at Sociedad.

2006, El Mundo described Dr Fuentes methods of blood treatment were aimed "boosting resistance to fatigue"

Again though, no identities were released from the 99 bags of blood seized and analyzed from Dr Fuentes in a Barcelona lab. The only sporting association to act upon this information were the UCI, even though Dr Fuentes admitted that roughly 40% of his clients were footballers and tennis players.

In the 2006 World Cup, even after the concerns raised by Operation Puerto, FIFA decided to drop all blood control testing for the tournament. FIFA began to introduce blood control testing in the 2002 WC, but decided to go back urine-only in '06 WC.

Jean-Pierre Paclet, who worked for the French Football association, claimed that blood tests from players of the 1998 WC winning team showed that several Les Bleus players had high red-blood cell levels, and anomalies, but nothing was done. Paclet said "the practises going on at the time [with the French national team] were borderline - it was common knowledge"

So many public warning signs down the years, and still today, no blood control tests are performed as standard in Europe's top leagues.

German football authorities recently ruled they "didn't have the money" to put blood-testing in place in football..... - Bundesliga turnover 2011/12 = 2 billion euro. Cost of implementing blood-testing a few hundred thousand.

Former client of Dr Fuentes cyclist Jorge Jaksche, claimed that German police suspected Fuentes of doping players at the 2006 WC but didn't have enough evidence to act. Jaksche says Fuentes often "boasted" to him about his work with footballers. "He was proud of it"