Drugs in football - 100% libel free

[gervilla]

Big Ron claims there was two players using recreational drugs during his time as villa boss. He kept schtum, only mentioning after he left, and as far as I know, he's never named them

Hmmmm.

I assumed one of these was a Scottish center forward that we had on loan  for a short spell, who was found out later to be very fond of the old devils dandruff.

[dave.woodhall]

Big Ron claims there was two players using recreational drugs during his time as villa boss. He kept schtum, only mentioning after he left, and as far as I know, he's never named them

Hmmmm.

I assumed one of these was a Scottish center forward that we had on loan  for a short spell, who was found out later to be very fond of the old devils dandruff.

No, and please don't ask anymore.

[gervilla]

Big Ron claims there was two players using recreational drugs during his time as villa boss. He kept schtum, only mentioning after he left, and as far as I know, he's never named them

Hmmmm.

I assumed one of these was a Scottish center forward that we had on loan  for a short spell, who was found out later to be very fond of the old devils dandruff.

No, and please don't ask anymore.

I didn't ask, I said "I assumed.." as in, since I heard that years ago I have always assumed he was one of the two.

[The Man With A Stick]

Dispatches is a very poor man's Panarama.

And is Panarama a very poor man's Panorama?

Either that or a Panamanian Bananarama tribute act.

[brian green]

Following the re examination of George Osborne's social life twenty years ago the very valid point was made yesterday that the consensus of medical research into the most dangerous drugs in Britain on a percentage basis rated smoking 48 alcohol 32 heroin 10 cocaine 6 marijuana 3 and ecstasy 1.

The only real difference between Berbatov smoking tobacco and "player A" using cocaine is the the government makes a lot of money out of tobacco so it is not regarded as a drug at all while cocaine (which was a standard dental treatment anaesthetic when I was a lad) makes them nothing.   The sooner we get politicians with the foresight and guts to legalize drug use the better but it is going to be a long long wait.

[garyfouroaks]

The "Drugs in football" argument is frequently misrepresented.

I am aware of no study which suggests that marijuana or cocaine, the two leading recreational drugs, have any performance enhancing effect on footballers.I believe that both drugs are used by some footballers, but with no positive performance effect.

The largely disappointing "Dispatches" highlighted the area of performance enhancing drugs both in terms of individual use, but more worryingly, the complicity of clubs in their use.

The Rio Ferdinand ban (for missing a drugs test, not for drugs use) flagged up concern in this area some years ago.How Rio forgot AND his club could not find him has never been satisfactorally explained.Although I wholly accept that the Authorities were satisfied that there was no wrong doing on the part of Rio or Man u - it did raise the hypothetical scnario of how clubs and players might collude to thwart drugs tests.