The Dispatches program looked at the taking of social!!! drugs and then performance enhancing drugs. Some of interesting points to us might be: Elvis Hammond was named as a Fulham player who was banned for 6 months for taking social drugs. I remember him as being a run of the mill forward who was loaned out a lot to lower division teams. Fulham players were noted for missing the drugs team 4 times (but it was said that this could have been due to re-arrangements of training and games). Portsmouth missed 8. During Ranieri's reign at Chelsea a special clinic was sent up by an Italian team that introduced players to a transfusion of a fluids to enhance performance and recovery. Both the club doctors had refused to sanction the use of the technics, due to possible side effects. It was setup as an outside clinic, but it was quoted that players used the facility. It was an interesting program, but I'm sure football authorities will close ranks and sweep it under the carpet. I would think a lot of not being open about who has been found guilty of drug taking is probably due to data protection act, and because a lot of the tests are in the words of the clubs voluntary?
Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought the EPL tested its players regularly and banned them when they're caught. I remember Rio Ferdinand taking half a year off from football for missing (or refusing to take) a urine test. Am I wrong about that? Illegal and performance-enhancing drugs are a chronic problem in US sports, where the money involved tempts people into trying to gain an edge in any way possible. In American football, the use of steriods is basically accepted as fact. It's players are tested, but the union requires players to be notified well in advance, giving them a chance to clean up. Performance-enhancing drugs were the biggest scandal ever to hit professional baseball. I'll be watching that show you mentioned. Should be interesting.
Both the Premier, FA and Players Union have said in their defense that they test beyond what other sports do. But the program gave instances of where and how these drugs tests were side-stepped by players. It's a game of statistics, one side shows how many tests they have made, but the other side counters with the percentage tested per player population being low as opposed to other sports. The program hinted that there were now masking agents available that leave potential positive tests in the balance giving the player the benefit of the doubt. Kaluo Toure was given a lighter sentence as the case was not proved sufficiently about his wife's? slimming pills.
[video=youtube;VPcBIw2422U]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPcBIw2422U&feature=related[/video] Kids, don't let this happen to you!
