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2004 – Wenger talks EPO
Wenger talks doping

Arsene Wenger made an interesting statement in 2004, revealing that several players he signed from other European clubs had abnormally high amounts of red blood cells – a symptom consistent with EPO use.

We have had some players come to us at Arsenal from other clubs abroad and their red blood cell count has been abnormally high. That kind of thing makes you wonder. There are clubs who dope their players without the players knowing. The club might say that they were being injected with vitamins and the player would not necessarily know that it was something different.


2004 – Doctor Del Moral’s ‘advice’ to Barcelona and Valencia
Del Moral doping Barcelona

Cycling journalist David Walsh recently tweeted about a conversation between Cyclist Tyler Hamilton and one of his trusted ‘doping doctors’, Luis del Moral.

Tyler Hamilton recalled a short conversation with US Postal doctor Luis del Moral from 1999: “you guys take nothing in comparison to footballers.”
Indeed, Del Moral’s involvement with football teams was confirmed on the website of the company Del Moral used to work for. On this page, it featured a list of Del Moral’s previous employers. All references to Del Moral have been removed since his conviction, but a screenshot has saved the claims. On it it’s stated that Del Moral used to be medical adviser of several football teams, most notably Barcelona and Valencia.

Daily Telegraph journalist Matt Scott pursued the story and questioned Barcelona and Valencia about the claims.

The four-times European champions responded by stating that they had searched employment records and could confirm that Del Moral was “never on the staff payroll”. However, Barça said they could not guarantee that Del Moral had not been engaged on an ad hoc basis by the medical department during that period, or been used by individual players. When asked who ran the club’s medical affairs at the time, Barcelona did not respond. Valencia did not answer calls and did not respond to two emails.


2006 – Fuentes: King of All Spain
Fuentes doping spain

This is the big one. The case that has the potential to become the greatest doping scandal in all of football’s history. The case that should already have been the biggest doping scandal in all of football, if it hadn’t been for the Spanish authorities and their commitment to ‘protect’ Spanish football from the truth.

In 2006, Spanish investigators uncovered a wide doping network around doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. Most big name cyclists from around the world were implicated and subsequently banned. Then something strange happened. As soon as reports surfaced that footballers too, were on Fuentes’ client lists, no further action was taken.

Even during the current trial of Fuentes, the Spanish judge has forbidden Fuentes to name any athletes other than cyclists. Clearly, some people don’t want the truth to come out.

In a 2006 interview with French newspaper Le Monde, Fuentes himself stated the following

I worked with Spanish first and second division clubs. Sometimes directly with the footballers themselves, sometimes by sharing my knowledge with the teams doctors. I had an offer from an Italian club but I turned it down.
Fuentes refused to reveal which clubs he had supplied with doping:

I can’t tell which clubs, I have received death threats. I was told that if I told certain things, my family and myself could have serious problems. There are sports against which you cannot go against, because they have access to very powerful legal means to defend themselves. And it could also cost the current chief of the sport his post.
The only team now confirmed to have been on Fuentes’ list is Real Sociedad, that pesky Basque team about whom nobody in Spain cares. Meanwhile, Spain’s big teams, most notably the two giants Barcelona and Real Madrid, remain untouched by the scandal. Or do they?

Le Monde in 2006 claimed to have obtained two sheets of paper from Dr Fuentes’ Canary Islands residence. According to the French publication, the documents reveal that Real Madrid and FC Barcelona were making use of Fuentes’s services. They show, for example, that the main objective of FC Barcelona was the Champions League in May, which it won, as well as having the players peak for the World Cup. The training programs include circles and ‘IG’ symbols that correspond to preparation or rest periods. These are the same symbols that we’ve recently seen used by Dr Fuentes in his plans for Real Sociedad

Given the protection these two teams receive from higher-up, it’s possible that we might never come to know the truth about the ties between Real Madrid, Barcelona and Fuentes.

But does it even matter? Isn’t the mountain of evidence presented on this page, already sufficient to turn anyone into a sceptic? Don’t the statements made by Cristiano Ronaldo and Vicente del Bosque suddenly appear to border between the comical and the suspicious? Are they truly ignorant of all that has happened and is still happening in the sport? Are they simply protecting their little world? Is there a similar code of silence among footballers as there is among cyclists?

Perhaps. In 1987 Paul Breitner said the public wasn’t ready to deal with the fact that doping is rampant in football. 26 years later, has the public become informed enough to accept the reality of doping in football?

It’s a question everyone must answer for himself.

Are you ready to accept that your favourite players and your favourites teams may be using illegal performance enhancing drugs?