"I believe that the players are all (acting) in good faith, I cannot believe that they want to risk their whole careers by doing something stupid. The problem is that from all the (nandrolone) cases so far, no clear picture has emerged. For example, it seems amazing that all these cases have happened only in Italy and not in any of the other major European leagues.
"I just hope that the problem is linked to the testing itself. I just cannot believe that experienced players like (Jaap) Stam, (Fernando) Couto and (Edgar) Davids would take prohibited substances. They just don't need them. You risk ruining your career for nothing."
The speaker is Italy and Juventus defender Gianluca Pessotto, team-mate of Davids, one of the high-profile subjects of the "nandrolone" scandal that has plagued Italian soccer over the last year. Pessotto made the observations to your correspondent just 10 days ago, ironically on the very day that the nandrolone "epidemic" struck yet another high-profile player, ex-Barcelona midfielder Sepp Guardiola, currently with Brescia in Italy and the 11th nandrolone case in Italian football.
Coming less than a month after news that Stam had tested positive after playing for Lazio in a Serie A game, Guardiola's case has thrown further fuel on the fiery furnace of the dope debate.
"What are you all talking about doping for? I'm clean," protested an angry Guardiola at a dramatic news conference in Brescia on the day after his positive test was confirmed, adding: "Perhaps the test was mistaken, perhaps something else went wrong, I don't know.
"Why would players like Stam and myself use doping substances at 30 years of age? To run a bit faster? To score the odd extra goal? Come off it."
Cynics argue that scoring the "odd extra goal" and running that "bit faster" provide a perfect reason to take an anabolic steroid like nandrolone which, among other things, increases an athlete's stamina while heightening aggression and raw power.
Despite his angry protestations of innocence, Guardiola's case was further complicated last week when it was revealed that he had tested positive for nandrolone a second time. His first test related to Piacenza v Brescia on October 20th, while the second came after Lazio v Brescia on November 4th.
To those who, like Guardiola, ask why players turn to dope late in their careers, there is an even more cynical answer. Perhaps they have been using dope all along and have been caught only when their careers have taken them to Italy, which boasts probably the most comprehensive dope testing programme in world football. Two players per team are tested at every Serie A and Serie B game.
Certainly, it was intriguing to hear non-Italian reaction to the Guardiola case. In Spain, national team coach Antonio Camacho called it "absurd", while the Barcelona president Joan Gaspart said: "You only have to have seen him play on TV to understand that it is ridiculous to even think of nandrolone. We're not talking about a big, tall central defender or a guy who ran around a lot. Guardiola has always been a frail, slender guy who used his brain."
Equally intriguing is the comment made to the Daily Telegraph last week by Middlesbrough's Italian Gianluca Festa, who pointed out that in five years in English soccer he has been dopetested only twice, or just as often as Guardiola in his first six weeks in Italian soccer.
It could be - and this is what football authorities everywhere would like to think - that the recently revamped Italian testing system is over-zealous. Or it could be - and no one likes the implications of this - that the other countries are lax in their testing and that, in fact, (some) footballers everywhere are taking banned substances.
For the time being, the jury is out.
pagnew@aconet.it
