Here is an interesting article on the role of doping in not just cycling, but also tennis and football. What do you think? Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes was in trouble in 2006 for helping cyclists with doping, but he also helped tennis and footballers. Spain has been performing well, not only in cycling, but also tennis and football and it leaves you wondering if there is something similar going on in Spain as there was in the Eastern Block in the 1980s or Chinese swimmers in the 1990s, but some absolute football and tennis legends could be doping cheats. Fuentes, could lift the lid on top level cyclists, footballers and tennis players!
It’s a public secret for anyone who follows the sport of cycling that Spain is the world’s capital of doping. Need a blood tranfusion? Go to Spain. How about a doctor specialized in doping techniques? Go to Spain. Or a federation with little doping controls? Go to Spain. And don’t forget authorities that will protect you? Spain.
In 2006, Spanish authorities uncovered a wide doping network around doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. Most big name cyclists from around the world were implicated. Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso – even the young Alberto Contador. But the great shock wasn’t that cyclists were using drugs to ride faster. Everyone had known about that for decades.
The real interesting part of the case, which is known as Operacion Puerta was the report that not just cyclists were on the list. As doctor Fuentes himself admitted: he had also ‘worked’ with tennis players. And with footballers. Doctor Fuentes observed how strange it was that cyclists were prosecuted and their names published in the media, but that the tennis and football stars were left alone. Were they being protected?
Since then, rumours of a cover-up, of Spain’s government wanting to protect its national sporting heroes, have repeatedly surfaced. Certainly, it’s interesting that the big four sports in Spain – Football, Cycling, Tennis and Basketball – have been absolutely dominated by Spanish athletes in recent years. A coincidence? Perhaps. But a lack of hard evidence means most media and people would rather not talk about it. But in the last week, two people have come out.
First the French former tennis great Yannick Noah. In Le Monde, he stated the following: “In my time, French athletes didn’t look ridiculous, far from it, against our Spanish friends. Same on the football fields, the basket halls or on the roads of the Tour de France. Today they are running faster than us, are much more stronger and only leave us the bread crumbs. Compared to them, it’s simple, we look like dwarves. Are we missing something?” One question keeps coming back to me: how can a nation dominate virtually overnight the sport in such a way ? Did they discover some avant-garde techniques or training facilities that nobody before them had imagined? I have searched and didn’t find any documented evidence of such innovations. Today, sports are a bit like Astérix at the Olympic Games: if you don’t have the magic potion, it’s hard to win. And here it looks like, just like Obelix, they fell right down in the potion pot.
Lucky guys.” It’s hard to argue with his observation. But he could be explained away as a jealous Frenchman.
In comes Oscar Pereiro Sio, a Spanish ex-cyclist. Yesterday, He declared the following: “Zidane has admitted that he had a blood transfusion in Switzerland to regenerate his body. In cycling that is a doping positive. Hopefully one day Fuentes will have the courage to tell everything he knows.
In Operación Puerto there were a lot of blood bags labelled European Championships. There are no European Championships in cycling.” Add to these statements the report that Fuentes is supposed to have said “If I would talk, the Spanish football team would be stripped of the 2010 World Cup”, and you’ve got to wonder: to what degree are Spain’s football triumphs related to doping? Does football have a doping problem?http://www.4dfoot.com/2011/11/21/yannick-noah-ties-spanish-football-triumphs-to-doping/
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