18 Jun 2025 21:00:58
Sad news about Mudryk. I wonder if he had came to us whether things would have worked out differently.
18 Jun 2025 23:19:26
Ed001, if you have any insight, how common is doping in football? I'm always surprised it comes up so infrequently and isn't rife with so much money at stake and seasons getting longer, with more and more games and small margins making a difference whether it be institutional and a team trying to push their players to play longer and harder or more clandestine and a young player who may be on the cusp of either making it or being let go or an older player has lost his pace and stamina still trying to keep up.
{Ed001's Note - it is very common but sports don't want to catch them as it could destroy the game's image. Cycling went from one of the biggest sports in the world to a minor sport because they caught the dopers. Other sports are afraid it would affect sponsorship. In England, the FA will allow players under a doping ban to be recorded as injured if they attend rehab. The only time it becomes public, like Mudryk, is when the player contests it. Usually though, they just put their hands up and accept they have been caught.}
19 Jun 2025 06:58:45
Thanks ed001. My sport until a couple years ago was Olympic weightlifting and I often wondered what would happen long term. The viewership is increasing every year, but the doping bans come constantly and the IOC wants to bin off the sport because of image problems. Yet I can't help but think it's naive to assume some sports are clean because people don't get caught - "tested" is all relative.
{Ed001's Note - very much so mate, I doubt any professional sport is clean.}
19 Jun 2025 09:26:11
Thanks ed, yeah I suspected with what's at stake there would be lots of it.
How come there's no whistleblowers, clean players, or someone like Mudryk who's been thrown under the bus with nothing to lose outing it?
{Ed001's Note - because doping is not as vital in a sport like footie. It doesn't improve a player technically or help them read the game.}
19 Jun 2025 14:14:51
Really interesting discussion lads. I was always curious about this topic.
There was obviously allegations about Peps Barcelona team and G Nev and Keano alluded to something about some of the Italian teams on their podcast a while back.
Wasn't Lance Armstrongs Italian doctor somehow involved in football back a few years ago?
Did you ever do an article on this topic ed? If there is one would you have a link to it?
{Ed001's Note - it is not really possible to write about it, too many legal issues to navigate. It was one of the other doctors involved in cycling at the time, Fuentes, who revealed football involvement. He actually admitted working with Barca, Madrid, Juve and others including the Spanish national team. He actually said, in court under oath, that the Spanish national team would be stripped off all their trophies if they knew what he had done with them. Unfortunately, it was in a Spanish court, where he was being sued by one of the riders he had treated who had nearly died due to his treatments, and the judge ordered all the evidence to be destroyed.}
19 Jun 2025 19:45:37
Why is it sad - he took drugs to cheat. I don’t get it.
How did you view Ben Johnson.
What am I missing?
{Ed001's Note - you know that Ben Johnson was not the only one doped in that race right? In fact only 2 were clean. Carl Lewis is the biggest cheat of all time as he so ehow still has the cheek to claim he had never doped even though he had served bans in college athletics for doping and has since been proven to have been as doped as Johnson.}
20 Jun 2025 00:27:18
Sorry Ed001, I was just picking him out as an example not listing everyone. More to say why should I feel sorry if he cheated just because we were linked with him? because he’s young? Did we feel sorry for the drugged up athletes or the ones that were robbed of their opportunity to cross the line first plus pick up a medal on the day rather than 6 months later in the post… not an expert. In this or any area really.
20 Jun 2025 00:31:01
Ed, but thank you as going to read up about it now!
{Ed001's Note - I do agree, it is clean athletes that are the ones to feel sorry for, but it does feel bad that the worst cheats are still able to get away with it.}
20 Jun 2025 16:51:22
Yes of course cheats should be punished Sy. I read it could have been pressure from an outside source/ could be accidental/ coach suggested some supplements. Lots of suggestions. Who knows?
He just seemed a kid from a war torn country, getting abuse from the Chelsea fans because he wasn't as successful as the huge price tag suggests he should have been. Point taken though and I am normally pretty harsh on cheats. Bit like Man City getting fined over £1m yet again for delaying the start of games. Two years running!