Should we be sympathising with footballers using illegal substances?
A cup of tea was once the cornerstone of any self-respecting football manager’s half-time communiqué (even if only to be repulsed wall-bound in Brain Clough-esque discontent). In the game of today the classically English thirst-quencher, and more importantly the caffeine contained within, is one of numerous banned substances that must be shunned if the team is to escape ever familiar prospect doping dishonour.
Abel Xavier, the Middlesborough defender, is the latest of an ever escalating list of sportsmen to fall victim to accusations of drugs. He joins the likes of Maradonna, Adrian Mutu and Jaap Stam on the register of soccer doping scandals. The concept of drugs in sport is elderly, but football players are now firmly at the vanguard of interest on the subject.
UEFA presently aim to test every player at least twice a season. It is disturbing how a game at the forefront of media attention and with such stringent measures in place, can be continually caught up in such a damaging and detrimental social issue. What is perhaps more worrying, is that in a recent survey of the Football League, only 10% of players questioned claimed to have received an educational program on drug use; 74% expressed uncertainty over banned substances and four fifths claimed poor awareness over anabolic substances.
I wonder how many young boys (to use a stereotype) possessed posters of Mutu, the disgraced Chelsea footballer, on their wall. How many still own Manchester United or England shirts with Ferdinand (the centre-half who “forgot” to take his drug test) printed proudly on the reverse. That these men are role models is not a new concept, nor is the suggestion that they are not fit to be so. But even the most sceptical among us, childhood fantasies aside, must confess that performing with such demands is a daunting prospect.
No longer can we simply reel-off colossal wages and expect footballers to be saints; they aren’t, and they are open to mammoth strain and temptation. Far from sanctifying them, their affluence and fast-paced lifestyle make them ideal targets for recreational and performance enhancing synthetics.
We could equate the use of drugs in football, to the cocaine epidemic that is apparently gripping staggering levels of prosperous, fast-paced city workers. If we are to continue this analogy, then surely it is a wonder more soccer players are not captured with hoary snouts. It is certain that every time a doping scandal breaks anywhere in the football community, the media will gleefully report on it, the same cannot be said for many other industries.
I believe it only fair that we consider the circumstances and situations of these young professionals, as with any individual with such an affliction. Maybe it is time we consider that being subjected to passionate hourly scrutiny, the idolatry of juvenile and mature alike and being prosperous at 20 is, at least for some, explanation for such behaviour not a stimulus against it.
(Rob McMillan )
