Back in 2006, Operación Puerto was ripping the cycling world a new arse through Jesus Manzano’s testimony to doping. At the center of the controversy was Eufemiano Fuentes, a gynecologist and expert in the drug EPO, which promotes the formation of red-blood cells in turn increasing the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood. Cycling’s top names were dropping like flies. Basso, Ullrich and Hamilton were all suspended. Lost in the downpour, however, was a comment made by Manzano in an interview with cyclingnews.com. A seemingly subtle admittance to seeing other athletes and some soccer players in his dealings with Fuentes. Obviously, the implications of this claim could be disastrous. What happened to it? Why was it not followed up? Why have most footy fans not heard of this?
Let’s take a look at the facts. The Manzano interview was dated June 10, 2006. A month later, on July 5th, Fuentes himself admitted giving treatments and advice to football teams and tennis players. The next day, however, the International Tennis Federation cleared all of its players from links to the case, although rumorsManzano reiterated his claim for France 3 TV, this time saying it was “well-known footballers” that he saw in his dealings with Fuentes. Soon after that, in December of ’06, the French newspaper Le Monde claimed to have possession of certain documents that linked several of La Liga’s top teams to Operacion Puerto. Which teams? Real Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Sevilla. Allegedly on the handwritten documents were the training regimens and objectives of the teams, including the ’05-06 Barcelona team which won the Champions League. Sketches similar to those Fuentes used with the cyclists were also present, thereby furthering the claim. persisted. In September of that year,
It took FIFA almost five months to respond to the allegations of the article in Le Monde. In May of 2007, Sepp Blatter declared that he wants to see the Le Monde documents in the “highest interest” of the sport itself. However, not only did he follow up on those comments, but here the trail dries up and dies. While the cycling world was turned on its head, the most famous athletes in the world’s most popular sport remained protected. What happened?
After two years of silence, a piece of the answer has come to us on May 15th of this year from IOC member Juan Antonio Samaranch, jr. He recently voiced his frustration at Spanish judge Antonio Serrano’s handling of this case. Samaranch, the IOC’s only Spanish member, is worried that the impotency that has become the Operacion Puerto case has affected Madrid’s chances of landing the 2016 Olympics. In addition to calling Serrano’s judiciary procession “sheer stupidity,” he also declared about the case:
“I don’t understand it, I really don’t understand it! Take all those bags, turn the lights on and call the typists, and get all the dirty laundry out onto the street!”
The bags that he refers to are the over two-hundred bags of blood that the Spanish Civil Guard took into evidence from Fuentes’ house during one of the initial raids. What Samarach may or may not have known is that just two months prior, the Italian newspaper La Repubbilca published a quiet article that was yet disturbing and brandishing. It also revealed a huge piece of the puzzle.
Back to early 2006, the Spanish Civil Guard was conducting perhaps the biggest investigation of sports doping in history under the direction of Lieutenant Enrique Gonzalez. As the article indicates, Gonzalez’s team had amassed a mountain of evidence against Fuentes. Articles about French rock star Jonny Hallyday going to a Fuentes clinic on advice from Zidane as well as Zidane’s past doping admissions only infuriated the process. Through leads, wire taps and confessions of athletes such as Manzano, the Civil Guard had what they thought was enough to raid the remainder of Fuentes’ residences, including one in particular in the Canary Islands which was to contain more bags of blood as well as a PC containing clients’ data. However, when they turned to judge Serrano for a warrant to raid the house, he replied “We can’t, we don’t have the money.” While the article subjects a bit about the motivations for such a response (too much national pride, an “insurmountable” legal problem), one thing remains clear: the Spanish Judiciary system and judge Serrano, despite the potential for sufficient evidence, DID NOT WANT TO TAKE ON DOPING IN LA LIGA.
As one can insinuate, since 2006, Operacion Puerto as it pertains to football has been a vegetable. The investigation closes and reopens with no results. Evidence goes un-inventoried and winds up missing. Even if they had properly cataloged it, by now the deconstruction of organic material in the blood would prove it useless for testing. That’s assuming if they had managed to ascertain the data files from the computer on the Canaries, which were necessary to match the blood to a specific client. Gonzalez and his team were reassigned to other cases. The investigation is so kaput that it is known in the court system as “El Cadaver, the dead body”.
Who is at fault? One can easily point the finger at the Serrano (who refuses to allow the case to be heard) and the Spanish Judiciary system, and they are partly at fault. Although, what happened to FIFA’s interest in the affair after May 15th, 2006? In the world of cycling, International Cycling Union president Pat McQuaid was on a Arlan Spectre-esque mission, at the expense of his sport's biggest event, to expose cycling’s dopers. Even though he suggested that Fuentes was so sophisticated that “it was certain” he was working with athlete’s of other sports, he remained focused on purging cycling. Where was FIFA in all this? While McQuaid was demanding information from the Spanish Government, all Blatter did was make an inquiry. There is no doubt that it takes two to tango, and between FIFA’s fear or lack of interest and Spain’s fear or lack of interest, no answers were provided.
There is little doubt that had a proper investigation been completed, the ending result would have shaken the global sporting community and the fallout would have been catastrophic. The biggest stars on the planet would have shot down like Halley’s comet. One can only speculate at this time, which is why we will not name names in this space. The rosters from the mid-decade teams of Spain should speak for themselves. Without proper evidence, this can't be an absolute conviction. That the evidence was purposefully disregarded, nevertheless, is something that should be in the consciousness of all fans of the world’s game.
I have put together this timeline to help better understand the ridiculous events that have taken place:
March 24, 2004; In a series of interviews, cyclist Jesus Manzano blows the cover off one of the largest doping rings in sports history. It's called Opercion Puerto.
June 10, 2006; Manzano admits to seeing other athletes, including footballers, in his dealings with Fuentes.
June 30, 2006; UCI President Pat McQuaid says that they got the list of dopers from the authorities in Spain because they "pushed the issue" and that other sports are probably involved in this.
July 5, 2006; Eufemiano Fuentes admits to giving advice on treatments to football teams and tennis athletes.
September 24, 2006; Manzano reiterates to France 3 TV that he saw "well-known footballers" during his visits to Fuentes' offices.
December 8, 2006; French newspaper Le Monde claims to have handwritten documents that show the involvement of La Liga's top clubs: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Sevilla.
May 15, 2007; FIFA president Sepp Blatter states he wants to know "what was in the Puerto file."
March 6, 2009; Italian sporting newspaper La Repubblica reports that the Spanish Civil Guard wanted to go on with investigation but were stopped by some of the highest levels of government. (Translated)
May 15, 2009; Spanish IOC member Juan Antonio Samaranch, jr. blasts the Spanish judge in charge of Opercion Puerto, Antonio Serrano, for his handling of the case.
written by Mark Stevens of the thetruefootball.com
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3 retorts and repartees:
Blatter sounds a bit like Selig during the early and mid '90s. Blatter should try learning from Selig and not duplicate his mistakes.
That's a great point. I almost think it's worse though because Selig was coming off the strike that killed baseball. That era really brought back the sport. By era I mean both the period in time and also the pitcher's statistic which I'm sure averaged around 7.45 in the late 90's.
There is no dip in popularity in football, however. Blatter could set a pretty good example by going after this, but so far we havn't seen much evidence that he will.
Good post which gives a nice summary of the Puerto case and raises doubts about how clean football is! I might add a few facts which may contribute to an answer to your initial question "Are footballers above doping suspicion".
Former players of Olympique Marseille report that in 1993 (at that time, Olympique was one of the best teams in Europe) players were given injections before important games. The players (as they say) did not know exactely what kind of injections they were given, but noticed that they were getting more alert and agressive, both caracteristics of amphetamines. In the mid-1990s, Zdenek Zeman, coach of AS Roma, publicly issued his doubts about the muscle gain of some of the players of Juventus Turin (also one of the leading clubs in Europe at that time). Italien authorities confiscated many forbidden substances at Juventus and star players like Zidane or Del Piero had to appear in court in order to explain these findings. During this process, the team docter was convicted at first instance for systematic doping with EPO. In the end, the whole process was stopped because the offense was time-barred. Nevertheless, the systematic abuse of EPO at one of the top European clubs in the mid-1990s was proven during this process.
In 2004, Arsène Wenger, coach of Arsenal London, publicly issued doubts about the physical condition of some of his new players: "We have had some players come to us at Arsenal from other clubs abroad and their red blood cell count has been abnormally high. That kind of thing makes you wonder. There are clubs who dope their players without the players knowing. The club might say that they were being injected with vitamins and the player would not necessarily know that it was something different." I don't want to answer the question whether players know or do not know about the exact content of the injections. Mr. Wenger however clearly says that some European clubs are doping their players with EPO.
Those few examples show that doping IS an issue in football. Unfortunately, one can get the impression that FIFA is not doing everything in its power to fight that doubt. WADA (World Anti Doping Agency) rules stipulate that every top athlete has to make himself available to be tested anywhere and at any place during the year. In order to make such tests possible, every athlete should tell WADA, where he or she can be found at a precise time every day of the year. Potential dopers should be deterred by possible surprise tests. FIFA rejected those rules, stating that top footballers only need to give the whereabouts of their club, as they are mostly with their team. They do not need to indicate their whereabouts when they are not with their team, i.e. during those weeks where there is no training at the club. The WADA regulations, according to FIFA, would restrict the privacy of the players. FIFA thereby has laxer standards in their fight against doping as cycling or athletics.
The answer to your question whether footballers are above suspicion: Certainly not! For a long standing fan of this sport, this is a sad conclusion to take.
(I apologize for my english, I am not a native speaker)
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