Doping in other sports

[smutchin]

There have for some time been stories doing the rounds of footballers getting up in the middle of the night to go for a run because they have "excess energy" to burn off.

Can't find any verifiable sources though, so maybe best take that one with a pinch of salt.

 

[dragon72]

That article is from 11 years ago but it's interesting nonetheless.
And appearing on the list of shamed soccerists in that article who have tested + for banned substances is Pep Guardiola who has achieved footballing sainthood already, hasn't he?

 

[smutchin]

EPO just doesn't makes sense for footballer

OK, so you don't agree with the wealth of expert opinion that says otherwise. No worries. That's your prerogative.

The number of footballers caught using EPO probably has a direct relationship to the number tested for it, and the way drug testing is conducted in football.

 

[Hont]

EPO just doesn't makes sense for footballer

Ok, we've pointed you to the evidence that states that EPO is being used by footballers. In what way does improved oxygen delivery to the muscles not make any sense for a footballer?

 

[albion]

It ha been said many a time that professional footballers have gone a lifetime without a test.

Still the same?

 

[thom]

indeed it is..

there are around 100 tests a season for EPO, no positives to date,

Juventus are said to have won the 1996 champions league final against Ajax because of EPO but the game finished 1 - 1, juventus won on a penalty shoot out, a lottery, now EPO is accredited to do many things but win penalty shootouts, not to sure on that one but then again I'm no expert.

And you have no thought process that associates extended performance through extra time, improved freshness and alertness taking penalties with the stamina enhancing properties of EPO ?
I'd rather be less knackered and able to focus if I had to take a penalty.

Look, I think none of us really know what it feels like to take peds and partake in pro sport - football as an individual event is perhaps less intense an aerobic exercise than football but over the course of a season, the ability to recover and train is crucial. I can well imagine some teams using EPO or some variant with slightly different properties but it's pretty hard for us to know really. People said Fuentes was involved in blood doping during the olympics. All we can do is speculate but I think it is fair to say it was money that was key to people using dope in cycling and there's far more money in football.

 

[Hip Priest]

Juventus are said to have won the 1996 champions league final against Ajax because of EPO but the game finished 1 - 1, juventus won on a penalty shoot out, a lottery, now EPO is accredited to do many things but win penalty shootouts, not to sure on that one but then again I'm no expert.

If Juventus had been clean, it might not have gone to a shoot-out.

 

[laurence]

this is looking a lot like the pharmstrong thread

 

[Hip Priest]

or either team scored another goal ..

 

[Hip Priest]

so what if Ajax had won on penalties then what, if Juventus had won 3, 4, 5 - 0 then yes maybe we could blame EPO but they didn't and lets not forget Juventus were a good team, with good players maybe just maybe this is why they won..

Your line of reasoning is giving me a headache. I respectively bow out of this discussion.

 

[thom]

this is kind of what I've been saying, drugs in football? a definite Yes, EPO I'm not so sure of...

your point responding about alertness & substitutes - I don't think it bears analysis, what with the advantages being about increasing probabilities, not making certainties. It is well known that football managers care about their teams being in form for the latter half of the season, not the first. EPO could help footballers maintain high levels of training and fitness throughout a season - its a training drug after all, not a stimulant and it is that fitness that will show at the end of games, particularly ones that drag on through extra time.

 

[smutchin]

I just don't see how something like EPO and what it does, works in football

Perhaps that's because you're vastly underestimating the physical demands of football at the top level...
http://www.sportsscientists.com/2010/06/physiology-of-football-profile-of-game.html
http://www.sportsscientists.com/2010/06/football-and-fatigue-discovered.html

Really, if you're not spent at the end of 90 minutes, you just haven't been trying hard enough.

 

[redcard]

So from the 2 links, this is what you gathered, absolute nonsense,
alright I concede to you all, Spain are reigning world and European champions due to EPO, irrespective of skill and technique...
some of the comments about football the game and not the drugs, leave me to have doubts if any of you have ever play football, or even watch football, ....
anyway I have enjoy myself,

You insinuated earlier you'd played football at the highest level. Right?

 

[Hont]

I know that no-one likes to admit they're wrong, especially on a forum to what is essentially a collection of strangers. Some people use forums to air their opinions with no real openness to other viewpoints. That I can understand. This has now however crossed the line into Trolldom. And we all know the rule on Trolls.

 

[thom]

And we all know the rule on Trolls.

You're screwed if you're a christian ?!