doping scandal in England! — Foot11.com
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A gigantic doping affair could well shake up British football and the Premier League in the coming days after revelations from the Daily Mail. Whether it will go further remains to be seen. More
It is a case that is likely to shake British football and the Premier League even though we are probably only at the first revelations. Several championship players are said to have failed drug tests, raising suspicions of a doping scandal.
88 players failed tests
» There is no doping in football“, assured Jurgen Klopp in 2009. “ Football is 100% clean“, swears as for him Cristiano Ronaldo in remarks relayed by France Info. Will the two figures of British football have to revise their judgment? In its April 17 edition, the DailyMail reveals proprietary information that could have serious repercussions.
In concrete terms, between 2015 and 2020, 15 Premier League footballers escaped drug checks. Worse still, for 12 of them, it was doping products, allowing them to improve their performance, which were detected by the British anti-doping agency.
However, none of them was sanctioned sportingly or worried by justice. How to explain this situation ? The British authorities explain that the decision would have been taken because it would be an accidental ingestion of the products or because the players had a therapeutic authorization to take this product. Five months after the last test, a case is still under investigation by the anti-doping agency (UKAD).
The Premier League under pressure?
Beyond the 15 Premier League players, the full list has 88 names. These are footballers from England, but also from Wales or Scotland who were tested over a period from 2013 to 2020. Among the products are amphetamines, testosterone, steroids or more triamcinolone. A product that would also have been used by Bradley Wiggins, in 2012, during his victory in the Tour de France.
the DailyMail underlines the lack of cooperation from the British anti-doping agency. The media therefore had to make a formal request after a long process. This would have taken three times longer than necessary. UKAD also drastically limited the amount of information and details that were released.
It remains to be seen whether the Premier League will officially react to this affair. It could indeed damage its image with the general public in the United Kingdom, but also on the international scene. In 2016, the Sunday Times revealed another doping scandal which involved more than 150 people, including Premier League players. At the time, athletes would have been prescribed doping products by Mark Bonar, an English doctor. In 2017, Manchester City and then Bournemouth were sanctioned for violating anti-doping regulations by » localization fault“. The two clubs had simply been fined.
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