Fuentes to reveal role in major sports

The Spanish doping doctor Eufemiano Fuentes apparently wants to make some cash. Possible side effect: Messy details of numerous doped athletes could get public. Including: football.

The Guardian reported last night online that Fuentes offers his knowledge of doping in sports for sale. Fuentes’ lawyers say several media offered him money for information, now the Spanish doctor seems to turns the tables. The Guardian writes that Fuentes’ lawyers had sent a list of topics to different media. Weiterlesen

Blood tests in Germany soon to come

Hier könnten sich verstecken: CERA, Wachstumshormon, Fremdblut. // ddp

The German football federation DFB has apparently finally decided to introduce blood tests. However, according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the frequency of the controls will be very low.

There will be blood tests in German football by the end of 2013 says a report by Johannes Aumueller and Thomas Kistner today in the Süddeutsche Zeitung (not yet online). Italy and England do have blood tests for several years. These tests are important because many substances can only be detected with blood tests. The DFB stayed ignorant to this fact until now. Perhaps one reason for the change of mind: WADA now requires that the proportion of blood tests increases to ten percent. We have reported several times about the lack of blood tests in German football.

Now there seems to be a deal between DFB and the National Anti-Doping Agency. The chairman of the Anti-Doping Commission of DFB Rainer Koch told the Süddeutsche Zeitung: “The Nada will begin in 2013 with the introduction of blood tests in most team sports.” The German Football League DFL said that it would appreciate blood tests.

The DFB always wanted other team sports to be tested, too. This is now the case – in hockey. Moreover, the multi-billion dollar business football didn’t want to spend any extra money for blood tests. This now seems to be working according to SZ. If anything, the budget should be increased only slightly.

Blod tests will probably be taken after training but only from national athletes and players of the first and second Bundesliga. So far NADA only took around 500 out of competition tests per year – for around 1,000 athletes. Since blood tests are expensive, the future number will probably be even lower. In addition, the most athletes (with the exception of the national team) will be tested only at official training sessions – the rest of the day they have nothing to fear. Many substance are detectable for only a short time.

Blood spinning in football: new evidence

In recent weeks some stories about blood treatments in football have been published. In Germany, England and Norway, treatment with own blood seems to be widespread. The method is called PRP – Platelet-Rich-Plasma therapy. It will help athletes to recover faster and to cure injuries. In 2011 WADA took the method from the doping list. But a recent study shows that the method could have performance-enhancing effects. Weiterlesen

Frank de Boer and the nandrolone

Frank de Boer, heute Trainer. // Greg Tee via flickr.com unter CC-BY-SA

Frank de Boer, Jaap Stam, Edgar Davids: The three of them connects a positive drug test. At the beginning of the millenial each one was caught with nandrolone. De Boer talked about it, again, in an interview on dutch tv. Guest contribution by Francois Duchateau.

In a tv interview Ajax coach Frank de Boer took a stand again on the reasons of his positive doping test from 2001. He never took vitamin pills from the Dutch Football Association KNVB again after the positive test, he said. But those were not to blame for the elevated quantities of nandrolone by the former Barcelona player.

Frank de Boer is often called “the Dutch Guardiola” and indeed there are a few parallels between the 112 times Dutch international and the future Bayern coach, not only many years (also together) in the shirt of FC Barcelona. Both players won European cups, trained under Louis van Gaal and adore the football philosophy of Johan Cruyff. Right away the model pupils collected silverware with their 4-3-3 and their obsession for talents at their first station as head coach. But their cv has one black spot in common: As many stars at that time, Guardiola and de Boer were tested positive on nandrolone. Weiterlesen

FIFA and Anti-Doping: All surface

FIFA has reacted on the debate around doping-doc Eufemiano Fuentes. It sent out a press release, but this e-mail just rehashes things that were already known. WADA praised FIFA, although the fight against doping in football has big gaps.

Boss of FIFA and king of football Joseph “Sepp” Blatter met John Fahey, president of World-Anti-Doping-Agency WADA, for a handshake on Thursday. At the end FIFA sent out a press release. FIFA testifies itself – with the help of John Fahey – that football does an awesome fight against doping. Some news orgs used this material to report on it. But this press release doesn’t contain any news at all, the plans for a biological profile have been known for a long time. And if they are that awesome isn’t clear at all.

“News” have been known for long
Jiri Dvorak is – together with Michel D’Hooghe – Chief medic of FIFA. Dvorak announced last summer in an interview with footballdrugs.com a biological profile for the Confed-Cup 2013 and the World Cup 2014. Dvorak described the same system [in German], FIFA advertises as news. Weiterlesen

Doping in Spain: Xabi Alonso involved?

Xabi Alonso (with beard) ist one of the key players of Real Madrid and the national team of Spain. When Alonso played for San Sebastian spielte, the club allgedly bought illegal doping substance for hundreds of thousands Euro.

The doping trail leads to the very top, to the top of the national football federation of Spain, to José Luis Astiazarán. Astiazarán is president of the Spanish Primera Division and vice-president of the national federation since 2005. When he was president of Real Sociedad San Sebastian he bought doping substances from Eufemiano Fuentes, reported the Spanish Newspaper El Pais and published prooving documents on the web. Xabi Alonso became a star while playing for San Sebastian in its suspicious time. The World-Anti-Doping Agency WADA started an investigation.

The Spanish club San Sebastian got doping substances from Eufemiano Fuentes for several years. Yesterday statements of former president Inaki Baldiola went public: His club did buy doping substances for a maximum of 342.000 Euro a year and paid it with black money. We reported on this issue, here is an additional Spanish video.

Today the Spanish newspaper El Pais published documents, which proove connections between San Sebastian and Fuentes. In these documentes you can find the abbreviation “R.Soc” for Real Sociedad (San Sebastian) as well. Weiterlesen

Ex-President: Real San Sebastian got doped

The former president of the Real Sociedad San Sebastian (Spanish Primera Division) confirmed in an interview with the Spanish sports paper AS, that team doctors bought doping substances for a period of several years.

Inaki Badiola has been president of Real Sociedad San Sebastian for not even a year, but in retrospect, it was a good one. Badiola speaks in public. He talks with AS about two team-doctors who bought doping substances for San Sebastian for several years. Weiterlesen

Fuentes admits providing Footballers

Eufemiano Fuentes admitted today that he provided athletes from different sports with doping substances or methods. Beneath cyclists he worked with track and field athletes, boxers, tennis and football players. He admitted providing them with blood transfusions.

[Guest report by Jonathan Sachse]

Fuentes referred with this statement to 2006. Jörg Jaksche talked about 2006 some days ago with the Telegraph where he described a meeting with german police officials. Weiterlesen

Not enough money for blood tests in football?

// ddp

There are still no blood tests in German football. And football officials are still reluctant to introduce them. The German Süddeutsche Zeitung reports today (not online yet) that there has been a meeting between some federations of team sports and the National Doping Agency NADA. Allegedly there is not enough money for blood tests in football.

[The links direct to older German posts, Sorry]

The national federations of football, basketball, handball and ice hockey met with NADA in Bonn. The issue: Finally introducing blood tests to team sports in Germany. We reported on the plan to meet in advance. Until now, we reported different times, there are no blood tests in German football, the national federation DFB always refused to become a forerunner. After the meeting in December the four national federations think it’s “imaginable to introduce blood tests in team sports”, there may be blood tests for internationals in out-of-competition tests. Weiterlesen