http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/23046085# Just seen this on the BBC. I've got a friend whose son is Head Coach at a well known Welsh club and he tells me this is just the tip of a very large ice-berg and young kids in particular are taking huge risks as they chase the fame and fortune football and other sports can bring. It's a major issue in their academy and I'm told a lot of others. Question is what more can the FA do to try to stamp it out?
Minimum 5 year bans for anyone guilty. Possibly lifetime if they really want to stop it. This is a performance enhancing drug after all, not a social one, so essentially, it is cheating.
I agree but I don't think they see much chance of being caught so the potential rewards way exceed any perceived risk. Should we go the way of Athletics and make drug testing far more stringent?
It should be a life-time ban. I don't believe the excuses. They should be doing drug tests a lot more often than they are. I can't believe there are not more blood tests.
Judging by the topless pictures of JWP on FA site, he's definitely not on steroids It is very important to stamp this out...not just because of cheating...but because of the damage that steroids do to a young man's body. Have to protect these lads from taking the easy route to supposed success. Young people believe any claptrap told to them by their peers, but assume adults know nothing. Regular tests which will make steroid abuse difficult, but tempered with advice and help if discovered in academy lads. Don't particularly want to see a long ban for a youngster making a silly mistake.
Clubs already regularly do a lot of tests on players. Regular drug tests could and should be introduced fairly easily.
I thought steroids were for wrestlers not footballers? I can't understand the appeal of taking something man-made to enhance performance. Surely, if you want better results and have increased fitness, stamina and strength it's better to work harder in more natural ways like nutrition and gym/running etc.
For those of you old enough to remember, Saints had a player called Neal Bartlett. He went through the youth ranks and broke into the Saints first team in the late 90's but was rumoured to have been kicked out of the club as they found evidence of cocaine usage. It was a waste of a good talent and opens up the debate as to whether someone should be dismissed for this as its not a performance enhancing drug? There's obviously the moral debate of being a role model but much bigger names have been supported rather than ousted.
Always believe in second chances for the young. It has now been backed up by scientific evidence that neural pathways for making judgement calls isn't hardwired until you reach 20...that's why the young are so reckless. Apparently children have more sense than teenagers. A ban and support is what is needed, as long as it is made clear that there must be no further incidents. One mistake shouldn't be allowed to ruin a young person's life.
Steriods would not be the most effective performance enhancing drug but they would still help immensely if used correctly. Even doing a quick search of what this player has taken it's positive effects include muscle growth, appetite stimulation and increased red blood cell production and bone density. EPO is the most common drug used by cheats for endurance. Cheats don't take performance enhancing drugs as an alternative to training. Yes.. the best way to increase endurance for football as a natural is to train like a long distance athlete and be as lean as possible but if you are taking a performance enhancing drug too you are at a massive advantage on top of everything else.
Steroids make it far easier and produce better results quicker then doing it naturally. Few people at the gym I go to use it and they only go to gym twice a week. Steroids is used a hell of a lot by players in all sports, it's just football hardly do anything about it. It's time they brought in far more tests more often or far more players then they do.
There was a programme on drugs in sport a couple of years back and the consensus was that drugs were only of limited use in football and most would harm performance.
Not surprised, wasn't he one of Bob Higgin's "boys" allegedly? Didn't he go on to do some Porn as well? So, he either had a terrible effected youth that ruined his life. Or... He got to be both a footballer and a porn star, WOW! Depends on your outlook I guess.
I have no problems with cyclists, rowers or any sport that doesn't significantly influence young people taking performance enhancing drugs. It would make the sport perfectly fair, if you don;t want to take the drugs you don't have to. The only problem for people not taking the drugs would be that they would harm their chances of fame and fortune which I have no sympathy with, if you enjoy rowing or cycling competitively other people taking drugs should have little baring on your enjoyment unless you only care about beating other people and earning money. Footballers taking drugs should be dealt with in a way that makes taking ped's unattractive to the young. Other than the social effects I have not much problem with sportsmen taking ped's as long as it is transparent and there aren't excessive health risks. It could become a freakshow but that is unlikely when most top quality sportsmen without ped's are already freaks.
I was told by someone who had dinner through their work with a journalist, that drug use for speedier injury recovery is widespread throughout the top of the game. It was even suggested that one very senior Premier League manager was approached by a journalist to discuss this and the journalist was told to go and sniff around another particularly high profile manager and his club in return for some good access. I have no substance to it other than a "hear say" over a dinner. I thought it a little far-fetched when I first heard it, but you never know.
Young players are under no illusions that they need to run every cough medicine and sleeping tablet past their medical staff, so the "I didn't realise excuse" can't stick. Frankly I am only surprised that not more young footballers get caught doing this whether accidentally or deliberately, there's a lot of stuff with flashy names and labels out there on the internet.
Sorry but I can't agree with this. People have been denied Olympic medals (and yes fame and fortune) because they didn't cheat whilst others did. Forget everything else, it is cheating. Having said that I would like to shatter the illusion that all you have to do is take the drugs to become a superman. You still have to train hard but it helps muscle growth and recovery.
To add to this, it is not just the event in question, but the long term gain. Take someone like Duane Chambers. What I didn't like about his situation was that he got to the level he was by taking substances and ok he is clean now, but would he have developed to the level he is at without "cheating" in the first place.
I've been lucky enough to have worked with a couple of top level international athletes who have been denied medals by others they could clearly 'see' were on performance drugs but were never caught. Apparently you could always tell by the eyes (think Ben Johnson) as much as anything. I can assure you, they are still mighty pissed off by it having sacrificed so much and worked so hard, only to be denied by cheats.
