Only a matter of time before sports corruption is uncovered in the UK?

[Mr Romanov Saviour of HMFC]

With the latest revelations about Australian sport basically being corrupt to the core, I'm finding it harder and harder to believe that British sport is squeaky clean and the rest of the world are at it.

 

Is it only a matter of time before the lid is blown on corruption in UK sport? What makes us so different from Australian sport, Italian football, the majority of pro cycling etc?

 

Anyone think we genuinely don't have anything to hide?

[Dusk_Till_Dawn]

With the latest revelations about Australian sport basically being corrupt to the core, I'm finding it harder and harder to believe that British sport is squeaky clean and the rest of the world are at it.

 

Is it only a matter of time before the lid is blown on corruption in UK sport? What makes us so different from Australian sport, Italian football, the majority of pro cycling etc?

 

Anyone think we genuinely don't have anything to hide?

 

I'm sure we've got plenty to hide. But it was quite interesting that when Interpol released the details of the fixed football matches, the UK barely figured.

[hughesie27]

I think in terms of doping Britain is pretty clean. Fixed outcomes of games im not so sure.

[Mr Romanov Saviour of HMFC]

I'm sure we've got plenty to hide. But it was quite interesting that when Interpol released the details of the fixed football matches, the UK barely figured.

 

Surprised me as well.

 

I think in terms of doping Britain is pretty clean. Fixed outcomes of games im not so sure.

 

I would have said the same but then would you have guessed Australia, a country probably even more proud of their sport than us, would be baw deep in doping scandals?

 

After all these revelations I just look at the likes of Team Sky and our Olympic performance in general and wonder.

[2NaFish]

no drugs please, we're british.

[Gigolo-Aunt]

Where there is money to be made, corruption can rear its head. When you have the biggest organisation in football, which is supposed to promote fair play being corrupt to the core - well if it can happen within FIFA, it can happen anywhere.

[milky_26]

add to this the spanish doctor guy who is on trial due to helping dope cyclists has claimed other sports people including footballers he has helped

[Mr Romanov Saviour of HMFC]

A lot of rumours in certain circles about team sky. I believe the team doctor has a history of doping etc. Don't know the ins and out but one of the first journalists to be on the Armstrong thing was far from convinced about sky's success and even their star rider.

 

Maybe as we're in uk those things not said. Whereas the French or whatever might have a slightly different view.

 

To be fair to them, quite a few of the team including coaches have been emptied recently due to admitting they've been involved in doping in the past. Brailsford doesn't strike me as someone who would allow it but you never know.

[Rand Paul's Ray Bans]

add to this the spanish doctor guy who is on trial due to helping dope cyclists has claimed other sports people including footballers he has helped

 

This story has a large potential to uncover mass doping in football. That is firstly if it's true, and secondly if FIFA don't manage to sweep it under the carpet.

 

I'm amazed there are barely any blood tests carried out in football.

[Mr Romanov Saviour of HMFC]

This story has a large potential to uncover mass doping in football. That is firstly if it's true, and secondly if FIFA don't manage to sweep it under the carpet.

 

I'm amazed there are barely any blood tests carried out in football.

 

The articles I've read on it point towards Barca or Real Madrid being involved. Top Spanish internationals etc.

 

Absolutely no chance these allegations will ever see the light of day. Football would be destroyed.

[milky_26]

This story has a large potential to uncover mass doping in football. That is firstly if it's true, and secondly if FIFA don't manage to sweep it under the carpet.

 

I'm amazed there are barely any blood tests carried out in football.

i get the impression from what i have seen on it that the spanish govt/FA are trying to cover it up.

 

Personally I would institute every member of a matchday squad to be tested after every game. I would also do this for every sport.

[Rand Paul's Ray Bans]

The articles I've read on it point towards Barca or Real Madrid being involved. Top Spanish internationals etc.

 

Absolutely no chance these allegations will ever see the light of day. Football would be destroyed.

 

I agree. Too much money involved for parties implicated and (that are meant to be) responsible to sort this out.

 

i get the impression from what i have seen on it that the spanish govt/FA are trying to cover it up.

 

Personally I would institute every member of a matchday squad to be tested after every game. I would also do this for every sport.

 

I agree with this also. Anti-doping measures across most of sport simply aren't thorough enough.

[Chester™]

The articles I've read on it point towards Barca or Real Madrid being involved. Top Spanish internationals etc.

 

Absolutely no chance these allegations will ever see the light of day. Football would be destroyed.

 

I believe its been discussed on Football Weekly, though was 'removed' from one of the pods. Once I've listened to Monday's one, I'll post further as Jimbo has the story in his headlines at the start IIRC.

[jamboinglasgow]

I would have said the same but then would you have guessed Australia, a country probably even more proud of their sport than us, would be baw deep in doping scandals?

 

After all these revelations I just look at the likes of Team Sky and our Olympic performance in general and wonder.

 

Does concern me as well, it would be devastating for UK sports if the cycling and olympics were to be found to have had drugs programs.

 

Football does seem to be bizzarely untouched generally by the drugs issues, occasionally it rears its ugly head but for the worlds most popular sport where great performance brings huge riches and huge pressure you would think there would be a wider use of drugs. Though Maradonna has said that at a world cup qualifier play-off match against Australia (think it was in 1993 when it was 5th South American team against the top Oceanic team for a world cup place) they knew before the match that there was going to be no drug testing at the match, so the head of the Argentinan FA got the team doctor to inject the team with something, he has since backed down on this claim.

[The Mighty Thor]

Doping in football?

We'll never know. Especially when pious high profile Manchester United and England players forget to turn up for tests

[Jezza]

I still can't figure out how Garry Occonnor never got done for drugs whilst at hibs. It's not as if he hid his habit.

[Guest GhostHunter]

Apparently there are only 2 labs in the world that can successfully test for the peptides/HGH.

 

Essendon's sports nutritionists were taking players away for "supplement" injections knowing full well they would go undetected, so, when the club found out, they handed themselves into the Sports governing body.

 

This story is only just starting in my opinion - I'd be gobsmacked if some British athletes aren't involved

[wibble]

It astounds me that anyone is even mildly surprised by these stories.

It has been well known all the time I have been in Australia that the AFL has a sham testing regime and that they provide numerous loopholes and weeks of advance notice of upcoming tests.

[MyWay]

 

 

Surprised me as well.

 

 

 

I would have said the same but then would you have guessed Australia, a country probably even more proud of their sport than us, would be baw deep in doping scandals?

 

After all these revelations I just look at the likes of Team Sky and our Olympic performance in general and wonder.

 

It's a funny one. Sometimes I feel it's a difficult situation for an athlete/team. We all know that cheating, especially performance enhancing drugs are rife throughout sport (some more than others). This leaves a difficult decision to be made. I know that morally it's wrong but the stakes are so high these days that I can understand the choice to cheat. As you say, nations like Australia and the USA have huge pride in there sport. So they must decide, do they stay clean and risk falling behind to someone, who for all they know could be cheating? Or do they cheat to stay at the top and risk it all if they are caught?

 

I'm not saying its right but its happening across world sport. I know if I was an athlete, in the knowledge that some of my rivals are definitely at it, I'd definitely be tempted.

[Patrick Bateman]

Remember the Tottenham game? I was taken aback at the sheer size difference between our players and theirs. I'm sure they have more advanced conditioning and training technique, but I find it astonishing that they can maintain that physique for so many months, playing 60-70 high intensity matches per season, maybe more. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if high numbers of footballers were doping. The thing is; it isn't in the EPL's governing body's interest to uncover this, because it would undoubtedly hurt their league and threaten sponsorship deals. Their house of cards would collapse pretty quickly.

[jack D and coke]

Remember the Tottenham game? I was taken aback at the sheer size difference between our players and theirs. I'm sure they have more advanced conditioning and training technique, but I find it astonishing that they can maintain that physique for so many months, playing 60-70 high intensity matches per season, maybe more. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if high numbers of footballers were doping. The thing is; it isn't in the EPL's governing body's interest to uncover this, because it would undoubtedly hurt their league and threaten sponsorship deals. Their house of cards would collapse pretty quickly.

I have to admit i feel the same. I'd be more surprised if football isn't baws deep in doping. Rugby players too, they look like f***** machines some of them. Just not sure if it's just more professionalism that has created such a gap tbh.

[Rand Paul's Ray Bans]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22353145

 

Fuentes jailed (for one year), but the judge orders the evidence to be destroyed.

 

[Boomstick]

I'm relatively certain most British cyclists are clean. Wiggins and Cavendish have been quite vocal in their hatred of doping - Cav especially as in some mountain stages of the tour de France in 2008 he struggled to stay within the time limit which may not have been an issue if the leader in those stages hadn't been doping.

 

I'm sure it goes on but I can't see any massive names in British cycling being caught out.

 

Mind you, I never thought everyone on tv in the 60s & 70s would turn out to be a nonce so I guess you never can tell.

[Sidsnot]

Sevco.

[ToadKiller Dog]

You just have to look at how many coaches etc from the Eastern European nations were employed by the likes of Australia and the US after the collapse of communism .

Not sure if the UK did the same .

[Radioactive Mince]

1. I think in terms of doping Britain is pretty clean.

 

Fixed outcomes of games im not so sure.

No ******* way. Colombia's Amazon basin has become a production centre for the illegal export of... If you were to test them all in sting-like fashion tomorrow, the figures would tell their own story, I reckon. For the record, I'd only compulsory test for performance enhancers. If Ryan Stevenson likes a wee doobie or two in the evening because his wife's giving him grief again, I don't see the problem or need to even test for that. If he gets done for possession then that can't be hidden and the club needs to think of its reputation and the role model aspect.

 

In a corrupt world driven by greed, no industry is clean. The more lucrative the industry, the deeper it must go IMO. The whole 'not what you know, who you know' network based anti-meritocracy is our own little friendly personal reminder of how greed and corruption go hand in hand.

[swavkav]

 

No ******* way. Colombia's Amazon basin has become a production centre for the illegal export of... If you were to test them all in sting-like fashion tomorrow, the figures would tell their own story, I reckon. For the record, I'd only compulsory test for performance enhancers. If Ryan Stevenson likes a wee doobie or two in the evening because his wife's giving him grief again, I don't see the problem or need to even test for that. If he gets done for possession then that can't be hidden and the club needs to think of its reputation and the role model aspect.

 

In a corrupt world driven by greed, no industry is clean. The more lucrative the industry, the deeper it must go IMO. The whole 'not what you know, who you know' network based anti-meritocracy is our own little friendly personal reminder of how greed and corruption go hand in hand.

 

 

Ahhh a Dj Excel refrence in there,

[The Brow]

Look up pictures of Gareth Thomas from the late 90s, then look at pictures of him now.

 

Its like two completely different people. I know professionalism has helped massively in Rugby, but the difference is absolutely ridiculous.

 

Sam Warburton and George North especially, look like they were grown in ******* test tubes. I have no idea how North is that big so young, he's either on something ot he's a freak of nature. I walked past Jamie Roberts in ASDA a few weeks ago and he was literally the biggest man I had ever seen. The head doesnt help like, but he was enormous.

[EreWeG0..]

With the latest revelations about Australian sport basically being corrupt to the core, I'm finding it harder and harder to believe that British sport is squeaky clean and the rest of the world are at it.

 

Is it only a matter of time before the lid is blown on corruption in UK sport? What makes us so different from Australian sport, Italian football, the majority of pro cycling etc?

 

Anyone think we genuinely don't have anything to hide?

 

Govan would be a good place to start..