Doping Skandal in England?
Verfasst: 11.10.2004, 11:54
Ich mach dazu nen neuen Thread auf, da es (wenn es denn wirklich stimmt) ein ganz schöner Hammer wäre.FA drugs busters target top Premiership player: report
LONDON (AFP) - Drugs testers from English football's ruling body the FA are targeting a top Premiership player who is suspected of using banned blood boosting drugs, according to reports.
The news comes only days after Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger voiced his concerns that the banned hormone EPO (erythropoietin) had been unwittingly administered to some of the foreign players who had arrived at his club.
According to the Sunday Mirror, FIFA's drug testing bodies have made the English FA and UK Sport aware of one of English football's biggest names having a very high level haematocrit level (volume of red blood cells in blood) when he was tested on international duty.
The Football Association's drug testers have since singled the player out. He was tested three times last season and has already been dope tested again this season.
They were hoping regular testing would catch him if he was using performance enhancing drugs.
Currently, the FA do not routinely test for EPO. However since Wenger's revelations last week the FA have revealed plans to carry out widespread testing for EPO, which since the early 1990s has been the scourge of cycling and other endurance sports.
EPO drugs boost the number of red blood cells, enabling the blood to carry more oxygen and thus increase energy and performance levels.
Healthy athletes normally have haematocrit levels of between 42 and 43 percent, although in cycling the permitted haematocrit threshold before any rider is temporarily prevented from racing is 50.
In the case of the Premiership player, he was close to being above the limit when given a blood test while playing for his country. FIFA's new crackdown on drugs means they have continued to monitor him.
No Premiership player has failed a test for EPO.
FIFA introduced blood testing before the last World Cup. There has as yet been no positive tests for EPO from any players although Italian giants Juventus have been involved in a long-running court case, accused of administering it to their squad between 1994 and 1998.
The FA have stepped up their testing procedures over the past two years. As of recently two players will be tested after every match, and international get-togethers and training grounds will also be targeted.
The English FA currently tests only urine samples although the FA now has the technology to test for EPO from the same sample.
An FA spokesman yesterday said: "We will be testing for EPO in the near future. We will be conducting 1600 tests this season.
"The FA has always wanted to be leading the way in the fight against doping and if a particular issue comes to light we would want to be up there among the first to address it."
Wenger earlier this week revealed: "Some of our signings from abroad have had an abnormally high red blood cell count. That does make you wonder. But there are clubs who dope their players without the players' knowledge."
Wer ist es? Rooney? Ferdinand?
