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Thread: Is Football Clean?

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    Member IBK's Avatar
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    Is Football Clean?

    Lance Armstrong is surely showing that if you are powerful enough you can make a mockery of the doping system. Armstrong is a cyclist. A multimillionaire who is the pinnacle of his sport. Premier league stars earn multi millions a year. Would clubs not be tempted to use an advantage when it costs a lot less than a transfer fee.

    Why are there so few questions asked about doped footballers? Or is it an oasis of fairness in an otherwise corrupt sporting world?
    Putting the laughter back into manslaughter

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    They/Them GP's Avatar
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    It would be naive to think that it was.

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    Member IBK's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Grimandi's Perm View Post
    It would be naive to think that it was.
    Interesting. I expected the first reply to be defensive.
    Putting the laughter back into manslaughter

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    Tennis Expert Syn's Avatar
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    It's less beneficial for footballers. The advantages aren't as transparent as for a complete endurance exercise like cycling. Power, endurance etc. plays only half the role in football - if that - whereas it's everything (or nearly everything) in cycling.

    It's a fair question but the frequency of drugs-testing in football isn't well publicised. We only hear when something goes wrong, not the thousands of thousands of tests that go right; and tbf they have made an example out of a few that have been caught in recent years.

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    Administrator McNamara That Ghost...'s Avatar
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    No Cripps, not this time.

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    Member IBK's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Syn View Post
    It's less beneficial for footballers. The advantages aren't as transparent as for a complete endurance exercise like cycling. Power, endurance etc. plays only half the role in football - if that - whereas it's everything (or nearly everything) in cycling.

    It's a fair question but the frequency of drugs-testing in football isn't well publicised. We only hear when something goes wrong, not the thousands of thousands of tests that go right; and tbf they have made an example out of a few that have been caught in recent years.
    Yes - that's the accepted view, but is football really still a sport when a limited improvement ain't worth it?
    Putting the laughter back into manslaughter

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    Administrator McNamara That Ghost...'s Avatar
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    Like anything there are probably stories that are yet to be uncovered but like Syn mentions, I'm not sure how it would have the other benefit like other sports - perhaps in terms of strength might be improved but that's not neccesarily going to improve your performance like in speed timed sports.

    However, there has been the suggestion since the Barcelona 92 Olympics - rather than that just inspiring a generation, Spain's massive improvement in most sports has been down to the use of steroids. I can't even remember where I read that the rumour due to it being sporadic at best but the Armstrong thing has shown you never quite know for sure.

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    Resident Liverpool Fan Shaqiri Is Boss's Avatar
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    It really wouldn't surprise me if they were all on something. But then that goes for all sports. And for betting and match fixing etc too.

    But I'd prefer to stay blissfully ignorant and pretend in my own mind it's all fine.

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    MOe Marc Overmars's Avatar
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    You never know and the Lance Armstrong case is shocking, but with the amount of scrutiny on doping these days, I wouldn't have thought Footballers, particuarly top level ones in the spotlight could be so stupid. As mentioned already, I'm not sure what there is to gain anyway in Football, technique prevails most of the time and that's not something you can take a pill for.

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    Tennis Expert Syn's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ice Berg Kamping View Post
    Yes - that's the accepted view, but is football really still a sport when a limited improvement ain't worth it?
    You're right. The reward is very high and the margins of success are very small. There could be an incentive for trying to cheat the system. Drugs isn't the only way to do that - maybe other measures are less risky (though none come to mind).

    But again, without wishing to go back to a rant about Arsenal, the success of the club on the pitch is not necessarily the club's major goal. Making money is. It matters that the club and players want to win at any cost for this to work. If the players are happy on their silly money they might not want to risk it. And the club can't really force them into it for fear of being heavily sued/destroyed.

    I'd say the risks of getting caught for either player or club would be pretty severe now. I guess your initial point was that it could be easy not to get caught but, as I say, I don't know how rigorous the testing is - it's not something that's publicised too well but that doesn't mean it's not competitive.
    Last edited by Syn; 15-10-2012 at 08:25 PM.

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