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Premier League Doping
- Thread starter Baleforce
- Start date
Rorschach
Sonny Walters
I like what you did there.Sunday Times leading with a PL doping scandal tomorrow according to Twitter
wow, no idea who it could be, you'd expect a football team who doped to suddenly be 30 points a season better from absolutely nowhere and there isn't any sign of that this season
paxtonwolf
John White
Sunday Times leading with a PL doping scandal tomorrow according to Twitter
wow, no idea who it could be, you'd expect a football team who doped to suddenly be 30 points a season better from absolutely nowhere and there isn't any sign of that this season
Yep Twitter going mad with it. Apparantly, 3 clubs named Leciester,Chelsea and Arsenal.
Can you imagine if they all got docked 10pts....we would still find a way to finish 3rd!
I would love it if we won the league by default. fudge the rest. The financial cheaters are no better IMO.
A British doctor has been secretly filmed describing how he prescribed banned performance- enhancing drugs to 150 elite sportsmen, including Premier League footballers.
An investigation by The Sunday Times has found that Dr Mark Bonar charges sports stars thousands of pounds for illicit drug programmes.
Yesterday, the culture secretary, John Whittingdale, ordered an inquiry into the taxpayer-funded UK Anti-Doping (Ukad) watchdog, which was given evidence about the doctor’s doping activities two years ago, but failed to take any action to stop him.
Bonar, 38, who is based at a private London clinic, made a series of extraordinary disclosures in meetings with undercover reporters which lay bare for the first time the depth of the drugs cheating culture within British sport. He claimed:
•His network of secret “clients” included an England cricketer, British Tour de France cyclists, a British boxing champion, tennis players and martial arts competitors as well as football...
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/article1684584.ece
And that's all you get without a subscription.
An investigation by The Sunday Times has found that Dr Mark Bonar charges sports stars thousands of pounds for illicit drug programmes.
Yesterday, the culture secretary, John Whittingdale, ordered an inquiry into the taxpayer-funded UK Anti-Doping (Ukad) watchdog, which was given evidence about the doctor’s doping activities two years ago, but failed to take any action to stop him.
Bonar, 38, who is based at a private London clinic, made a series of extraordinary disclosures in meetings with undercover reporters which lay bare for the first time the depth of the drugs cheating culture within British sport. He claimed:
•His network of secret “clients” included an England cricketer, British Tour de France cyclists, a British boxing champion, tennis players and martial arts competitors as well as football...
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/article1684584.ece
And that's all you get without a subscription.
Denmark Spur
Edgar Davids
British doctor claims he doped 150 sports stars
A British doctor has been secretly filmed describing how he prescribed banned performance- enhancing drugs to 150 elite sportsmen, including Premier League footballers.
An investigation by The Sunday Times has found that Dr Mark Bonar charges sports stars thousands of pounds for illicit drug programmes.
Yesterday, the culture secretary, John Whittingdale, ordered an inquiry into the taxpayer-funded UK Anti-Doping (Ukad) watchdog, which was given evidence about the doctor’s doping activities two years ago, but failed to take any action to stop him.
Bonar, 38, who is based at a private London clinic, made a series of extraordinary disclosures in meetings with undercover reporters which lay bare for the first time the depth of the drugs cheating culture within British sport. He claimed:
•His network of secret “clients” included an England cricketer, British Tour de France cyclists, a British boxing champion, tennis players and martial arts competitors as well as football players
•Bonar claims he has treated Arsenal, Chelsea, Leicester City and Birmingham City players. Despite Bonar’s claims, The Sunday Times has no independent evidence Bonar treated the players. There is no evidence the clubs were aware of Bonar’s relationship with any players or drug use by them.
•In the past six years he has treated more than 150 sports people from the UK and abroad variously with banned substances such as erythropoietin (EPO), steroids and human growth hormone, and the sports performance improvements were “phenomenal”
•He was introduced to several sportsmen by a former Chelsea fitness coach who himself said he had suggested to a Premier League player that he should contact the doctor about steroid treatment.
•He had given performance- enhancing drugs to two professional dancers from BBC television’s Strictly Come Dancing.
Bonar’s description of his illicit work will shock British sports fans. It comes in the wake of this newspaper’s doping scandal exposé last summer, which revealed widespread cheating at top international athletics events.
His admissions also raise serious questions about the competence of Ukad, which has been chosen to investigate the recent doping allegations in Russian sport and will oversee the worldwide effort to stamp out the use of banned drugs ahead of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro this summer.
Ukad, which receives £6m of taxpayers’ money to police British sport, was given documentary evidence of the doctor’s doping activities two years ago, but dismissed the allegations after a perfunctory investigation.
Whittingdale said he was “shocked and deeply concerned” by the revelations about Bonar and demanded to know why Ukad did not act sooner. “I have asked for an urgent independent investigation into what action was taken when these allegations were first received and what more needs to be done to ensure that British sport remains clean,” he said.
“There is no room for complacency in the fight against doping and the government is already looking at whether existing legislation in this area goes far enough. If it becomes clear that stronger criminal sanctions are needed, then we will not hesitate to act.”
After viewing the undercover footage of the meetings with Bonar, Toni Minichiello, coach to the Olympic gold medallist Jessica Ennis-Hill, said: “This case shows that British sport has a bigger doping problem than any of us imagined.”
He called on Nicole Sapstead, Ukad’s chief executive, to resign. “Her clear error of judgment in failing to ensure Ukad properly investigated Bonar makes her position untenable because she has failed in her fundamental duty to protect clean athletes.”
Lord Moynihan, the former sports minister, called for Ukad to be suspended from its duties and said Sapstead’s position appeared to be “untenable”. Emails confirm Sapstead was aware of the case at the time.
Bonar is an anti-ageing doctor who treats private patients at the Omniya clinic in Knightsbridge, London. He claims to take a cut on the medications he prescribes. Omniya said last week that it did not know that Bonar was treating sports stars.
The Sunday Times was first tipped off about Bonar’s doping activities by a sportsman who had approached Ukad with evidence about the doctor after he himself had been suspended for breaching anti-doping rules.
In the hope of securing a reduction of his suspension, the sportsman handed investigators documents proving that Bonar had prescribed him the banned substances.
However, Ukad later dismissed the athlete’s evidence as being of “little or no value” and said there were “no grounds for action to be taken against Dr Bonar”. Ukad considered it had no jurisdiction over Bonar but it did not contact or pass on the evidence to the General Medical Council (GMC) which has clear rules stating that doctors should not prescribe drugs to enhance sporting performance.
To test the sportsman’s evidence, this newspaper sent an aspiring Olympic runner to Bonar’s clinic. His appointments were recorded using a hidden camera.
In the first meeting, Bonar told the athlete: “Some of these treatments I use are banned on a professional circuit. So, you have to be mindful of that. Having said that — I have worked with lots of professional athletes who do use these treatments.”
He prescribed prohibited drugs to the runner and suggested his performance would improve with a course of EPO which he was happy to supply.
The doctor went on to talk about the other sportsmen he claimed he had treated in a series of meetings with undercover reporters. He said drugs were now a part of sport and claimed he had “never met a clean athlete”.
It is the first time that Premier League players have been dragged into the doping scandal. Bonar claimed he had worked with “a few footballers” who have been or are currently members of the playing staff of the Premier League clubs Arsenal, Chelsea and Leicester City, and the Championship side Birmingham City.
Bonar said athletes knew about his services through word of mouth. “I don’t really advertise . . . I don’t want that media scrutiny that kind of [thing], you know, coming down on you.”
Although he named athletes from several different sports, this newspaper has decided not to publicise them until Bonar’s claims have been further investigated. Those contacted by The Sunday Times either denied being treated by him or declined to comment.
As part of the service Bonar was offering to the undercover reporters, he introduced them to Rob Brinded, a former fitness coach at Chelsea football club. Bonar said the pair had “collaborated on a lot of clients”. He added: “We are a great team.”
Brinded revealed to the reporters that he had been told that a number of Chelsea players were taking banned sports drugs during his time at the club between 2001 and 2007. Yesterday his lawyer claimed that there must have been a “misunderstanding” and he denied saying that any Chelsea players were ever taking banned drugs.
He said he had recently suggested a first team player from a Premier League club contact Bonar in order to undergo a course of steroid treatment. “I know he’s [Bonar] worked with a lot of footballers,” Brinded said.
Brinded said he would not take part in the doping himself and that would all be dealt with by Bonar. There is no evidence that the players Bonar claims to have treated were referred to him by Brinded, who denies referring any sports clients to Bonar.
The General Medical Council’s rules state that doctors: “Must not prescribe or collude in the provision of medicines or treatment with the intention of improperly enhancing an individual’s performance in sport.”
Niall dingdongson, chief executive of the GMC, said: ‘I would like to thank The Sunday Times for bringing these issues to our attention. These are serious allegations and we will follow them up as a matter of urgency.”
Last week Bonar denied doping sports stars to enhance their performance and said he had not breached GMC rules. “The fact that some of my patients happen to be professional athletes is irrelevant. If they have proven deficiencies on blood work and are symptomatic, I will treat them.
“They are well fully aware of the risks of using these medicines in professional sport and it is their responsibility to comply with anti-doping regulations.”
David Kenworthy, the chairman of Ukad, issued a statement saying: “An independent review will be conducted into the issues raised by The Sunday Times.
“They will also be asked to make any recommendations to improve the way in which intelligence is dealt with in the future so that Ukad can be as effective as possible in keeping sport clean
A British doctor has been secretly filmed describing how he prescribed banned performance- enhancing drugs to 150 elite sportsmen, including Premier League footballers.
An investigation by The Sunday Times has found that Dr Mark Bonar charges sports stars thousands of pounds for illicit drug programmes.
Yesterday, the culture secretary, John Whittingdale, ordered an inquiry into the taxpayer-funded UK Anti-Doping (Ukad) watchdog, which was given evidence about the doctor’s doping activities two years ago, but failed to take any action to stop him.
Bonar, 38, who is based at a private London clinic, made a series of extraordinary disclosures in meetings with undercover reporters which lay bare for the first time the depth of the drugs cheating culture within British sport. He claimed:
•His network of secret “clients” included an England cricketer, British Tour de France cyclists, a British boxing champion, tennis players and martial arts competitors as well as football players
•Bonar claims he has treated Arsenal, Chelsea, Leicester City and Birmingham City players. Despite Bonar’s claims, The Sunday Times has no independent evidence Bonar treated the players. There is no evidence the clubs were aware of Bonar’s relationship with any players or drug use by them.
•In the past six years he has treated more than 150 sports people from the UK and abroad variously with banned substances such as erythropoietin (EPO), steroids and human growth hormone, and the sports performance improvements were “phenomenal”
•He was introduced to several sportsmen by a former Chelsea fitness coach who himself said he had suggested to a Premier League player that he should contact the doctor about steroid treatment.
•He had given performance- enhancing drugs to two professional dancers from BBC television’s Strictly Come Dancing.
Bonar’s description of his illicit work will shock British sports fans. It comes in the wake of this newspaper’s doping scandal exposé last summer, which revealed widespread cheating at top international athletics events.
His admissions also raise serious questions about the competence of Ukad, which has been chosen to investigate the recent doping allegations in Russian sport and will oversee the worldwide effort to stamp out the use of banned drugs ahead of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro this summer.
Ukad, which receives £6m of taxpayers’ money to police British sport, was given documentary evidence of the doctor’s doping activities two years ago, but dismissed the allegations after a perfunctory investigation.
Whittingdale said he was “shocked and deeply concerned” by the revelations about Bonar and demanded to know why Ukad did not act sooner. “I have asked for an urgent independent investigation into what action was taken when these allegations were first received and what more needs to be done to ensure that British sport remains clean,” he said.
“There is no room for complacency in the fight against doping and the government is already looking at whether existing legislation in this area goes far enough. If it becomes clear that stronger criminal sanctions are needed, then we will not hesitate to act.”
After viewing the undercover footage of the meetings with Bonar, Toni Minichiello, coach to the Olympic gold medallist Jessica Ennis-Hill, said: “This case shows that British sport has a bigger doping problem than any of us imagined.”
He called on Nicole Sapstead, Ukad’s chief executive, to resign. “Her clear error of judgment in failing to ensure Ukad properly investigated Bonar makes her position untenable because she has failed in her fundamental duty to protect clean athletes.”
Lord Moynihan, the former sports minister, called for Ukad to be suspended from its duties and said Sapstead’s position appeared to be “untenable”. Emails confirm Sapstead was aware of the case at the time.
Bonar is an anti-ageing doctor who treats private patients at the Omniya clinic in Knightsbridge, London. He claims to take a cut on the medications he prescribes. Omniya said last week that it did not know that Bonar was treating sports stars.
The Sunday Times was first tipped off about Bonar’s doping activities by a sportsman who had approached Ukad with evidence about the doctor after he himself had been suspended for breaching anti-doping rules.
In the hope of securing a reduction of his suspension, the sportsman handed investigators documents proving that Bonar had prescribed him the banned substances.
However, Ukad later dismissed the athlete’s evidence as being of “little or no value” and said there were “no grounds for action to be taken against Dr Bonar”. Ukad considered it had no jurisdiction over Bonar but it did not contact or pass on the evidence to the General Medical Council (GMC) which has clear rules stating that doctors should not prescribe drugs to enhance sporting performance.
To test the sportsman’s evidence, this newspaper sent an aspiring Olympic runner to Bonar’s clinic. His appointments were recorded using a hidden camera.
In the first meeting, Bonar told the athlete: “Some of these treatments I use are banned on a professional circuit. So, you have to be mindful of that. Having said that — I have worked with lots of professional athletes who do use these treatments.”
He prescribed prohibited drugs to the runner and suggested his performance would improve with a course of EPO which he was happy to supply.
The doctor went on to talk about the other sportsmen he claimed he had treated in a series of meetings with undercover reporters. He said drugs were now a part of sport and claimed he had “never met a clean athlete”.
It is the first time that Premier League players have been dragged into the doping scandal. Bonar claimed he had worked with “a few footballers” who have been or are currently members of the playing staff of the Premier League clubs Arsenal, Chelsea and Leicester City, and the Championship side Birmingham City.
Bonar said athletes knew about his services through word of mouth. “I don’t really advertise . . . I don’t want that media scrutiny that kind of [thing], you know, coming down on you.”
Although he named athletes from several different sports, this newspaper has decided not to publicise them until Bonar’s claims have been further investigated. Those contacted by The Sunday Times either denied being treated by him or declined to comment.
As part of the service Bonar was offering to the undercover reporters, he introduced them to Rob Brinded, a former fitness coach at Chelsea football club. Bonar said the pair had “collaborated on a lot of clients”. He added: “We are a great team.”
Brinded revealed to the reporters that he had been told that a number of Chelsea players were taking banned sports drugs during his time at the club between 2001 and 2007. Yesterday his lawyer claimed that there must have been a “misunderstanding” and he denied saying that any Chelsea players were ever taking banned drugs.
He said he had recently suggested a first team player from a Premier League club contact Bonar in order to undergo a course of steroid treatment. “I know he’s [Bonar] worked with a lot of footballers,” Brinded said.
Brinded said he would not take part in the doping himself and that would all be dealt with by Bonar. There is no evidence that the players Bonar claims to have treated were referred to him by Brinded, who denies referring any sports clients to Bonar.
The General Medical Council’s rules state that doctors: “Must not prescribe or collude in the provision of medicines or treatment with the intention of improperly enhancing an individual’s performance in sport.”
Niall dingdongson, chief executive of the GMC, said: ‘I would like to thank The Sunday Times for bringing these issues to our attention. These are serious allegations and we will follow them up as a matter of urgency.”
Last week Bonar denied doping sports stars to enhance their performance and said he had not breached GMC rules. “The fact that some of my patients happen to be professional athletes is irrelevant. If they have proven deficiencies on blood work and are symptomatic, I will treat them.
“They are well fully aware of the risks of using these medicines in professional sport and it is their responsibility to comply with anti-doping regulations.”
David Kenworthy, the chairman of Ukad, issued a statement saying: “An independent review will be conducted into the issues raised by The Sunday Times.
“They will also be asked to make any recommendations to improve the way in which intelligence is dealt with in the future so that Ukad can be as effective as possible in keeping sport clean
Lemonade Money
Steffen Freund
How about a team 30 points a season worse off after their doctor leaves?Sunday Times leading with a PL doping scandal tomorrow according to Twitter
wow, no idea who it could be, you'd expect a football team who doped to suddenly be 30 points a season better from absolutely nowhere and there isn't any sign of that this season
Baleforce
Ron Henry
if this is real, and it can be proved the clubs were complicit in it, then we are not looking at docked points, we are looking at clubs being thrown out of the league (well at least we should be)
any player caught acting alone would get a minimum two year ban from professional competition
the police will be involved and legal action from wronged parties (sponsors, the players club, maybe even opposition clubs) is inevitable
this could be the biggest sporting news story of all time
I can't say I'm at all surprised, the sporting world has been looking down its nose at cycling's doping problem for years, I don't believe there is a professional sport untouched by this (well, other than darts)
paxtonwolf
John White
Not getting excited over this. Arsenal and Chelsea are mentioned, it will get brushed under the carpet with no penalties..Sky and Roman will see to that
jts1882
Dean Richards
It's certainly possible to create a nice little plot. Chelsea and Leicester are named. They quote a former fitness coach at Chelsea from 2001 to 2007 and you can ask who was the manager during the early part of that period. However, Leicester's improvement started before Ranieri was appointed.
Overall, I'd be surprised if a club had an official doping programme. The risks of getting caught and the consequences are too much. On the other hand, it would be a big surprise if PL players were not involved in doping, given the money involved. Players on the edge of selection or trying to recover from injury would try everything. It's not unlikely that some staff at clubs are aware of the activities of players or point them in the right direction (e.g. the shopping mall).
Overall, I'd be surprised if a club had an official doping programme. The risks of getting caught and the consequences are too much. On the other hand, it would be a big surprise if PL players were not involved in doping, given the money involved. Players on the edge of selection or trying to recover from injury would try everything. It's not unlikely that some staff at clubs are aware of the activities of players or point them in the right direction (e.g. the shopping mall).
glasgowspur
Dimitar Berbatov
Surely it shouldn't matter if the clubs knew, if they benefit from a player cheating they will have to be docked points.
If they field an ineligible player by mistake they lose the game, what's the difference
If they field an ineligible player by mistake they lose the game, what's the difference
johnola
Mauricio Taricco
I don't think anyone of us should be throwing stones around based on a sales pitch from a highly suspect doctor.
Whilst the doctor in question is damned in his own words there is nothing material to suggest individual clubs or players have cheated. That may come in time but the paper made it clear they don't have independent evidence which leaves the four named clubs in a predicament.
A predicament I will watch with amusement.
jts1882
Dean Richards
Of course, they should and probably would be punished. But the scale of the penalties would be different. If they had an official programme, then the sanctions would have to be severe. How severe would probably depend on the club (e.g. Leicester v Chelsea).
I suspect a lot of it is the doctor soliciting for business. He probably has some clients, but the 150 is questionable. However, there is also the testimony of the former Chelsea fitness trainer. He has denied it but I assume they have it on tape.
The Sunday Times has a good record. It was they who were publishing the stuff about Lance Armstrong and they had a batch of stuff on FIFA.
The clubs could ask the ST for the names.
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Baleforce
Ron Henry
not long after wenger turned up Arsenal one of the players had a biography released (sadly can't remember who), in it they mention the change in their diet and the injections of yellow gloop after matches to help recovery
glasgowspur
Dimitar Berbatov
I'm not throwing stones, but the inference is that in situations like this the clubs shouldn't be punished. They fielded cheating players, ignorance is no defence.
Considering how much the players are monitored medically now by clubs looking to produce an edge I think it's unlikely this guys stories are true. But if they are the clubs knew, or at least suspected.
Follow the money.
If it's a club program then there's no way the players would have paid from their own pockets.
Chelsea's will probably be the toughest to follow, Leicester probably just wrote out cheques.
Baleforce
Ron Henry
similarly to pro cycling, I don't believe it is possible for an athlete to be doping themselves without their team noticing
SpurMeUp
Jimmy Cantrell
Can we start a new thread on drugs in the PL. Who has a link or recalls an ex-goon player (forget who but he's in the media) talking about how he would be given a dose each week? Leicester certainly fit the profile of a stimulant athlete. From nothing to the top overnight.
What's not clear is where Arsenal, Leicester and Birmingham clubs names came from? Was the Doc. name dropping these clubs or players from those clubs?
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glasgowspur
Dimitar Berbatov
Not buying that with Leicester, stamina isn't winning them games, it's luck and awful refs.