What if football is unfair? What if there is conclusive, measurable scientific evidence that the opportunities are unequal? And never been? Can you imagine it for minutes? You wake up, eat breakfast and browse a social media, your eyes fall on breaking news: "A recent study from Oxford; cheating dominates football competitions by at least 60%!" "MIT Researchers: We reviewed the study's calculations and can confirm the conclusion it reached", "Infantino: We discovered that the game's long career is nothing but a huge lie! I resign and declare the dissolution of FIFA!"

Umerta

You'll probably hang on for a moment with the breakfast sandwich halfway through your mouth, click on the link, make sure football is really unfair, never was, rush to the comments section to find solace in the angry reactions of the interacters full of exclamation marks and flaming red faces, and then get up hurriedly completing your sandwich so you don't miss the metro to work, hoping for a heated discussion about it during the lunch hour.

Of course, you already know what will happen in this discussion, or at least at the end of it; after exploring all the possibilities, alternative options, and different paths of action, you and your colleagues will conclude that those 60% often represent football competitions in underdeveloped countries, those that no one watches in the first place, and then you continue your life feeling pity for these poor peoples.

Most likely, this will be the opening of the letter appointing the new FIFA president who will succeed Infantino, with the promise of a few programs to develop the game in developing countries and fight that phenomenon to restore the world's first popular game, which did not become so due to cheating, doping or match-rigging. This, of course, if you can imagine a world in which the FIFA president would voluntarily resign from office.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino (Anadolu)

Grading through these different psychological and emotional stages across 266 words – the strength of the past four paragraphs – is what subconsciously befalls us when we are subjected to severe trauma; this is the way our minds deceive us to minimize the impact of trauma, especially those traumas that force us to react that we cannot bear and cannot afford, and requires a radical change in our reality, such as forcing football fans to stop watching football, for example. (1)

With time, without conscious interference, a kind of popular conspiracy or "Omerta" in Italian terms is formed; everyone knows, everyone is silent, because everyone is involved, and therefore everyone is ready to abuse those who dare to break the covenant.

In the end, everyone ignores, or prefers to ignore, simply because if football was unfair in the first place, what have we been doing for the last hundred and fifty years? And what are we going to do tomorrow? (2)

We'd prefer to ignore it, of course. This is what we have been doing with most of the claims of doping use in the game for the same hundred and fifty years, because doping, like all allegations of cheating in the game, is only a window that gives us a look at the world we agreed to ignore, and threatens us with an alternative reality that is difficult to live with.

A small window, because - surprising - the recorded facts are very few, but each incident indicated something bigger, deeper and worse, and we like to ignore the biggest, deepest and worst as long as dealing with it will take more than two minutes, a picture or a tweet. In fact, this is exactly what Vicente Del Bosque, the coach of the Spanish senior team, chose to do, when asked about doping in the game in 2013 to reply: "It's a topic I'd rather ignore".(3)

War crimes

Andre Onana (Reuters)

In principle, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) defines the charge as "intentional or unintentional consumption of prohibited substances, and the intentional or unintentional use of illegal methods during doping tests." (3)

intentional or unintentional; this explains Onana's punishment, for example, despite proving his sincerity. On paper, the IOC has given doping users no escape space. (4)

Believe it or not, this absolute definition was neither sufficient nor adequate for the World Anti-Doping Agency, which is abbreviated as "WADA", because it issued its own regulation to define the charge of doping in 2004, which includes 11 items covering all the loopholes that any user may resort to, some of which reached the point of criminalizing possession itself, even if it is not proven that the athlete is abusing it, knowing that some of these stimulants are found in many Medications. (5)

Onana's case was the most recent example, but the law is so strict that it punishes unintentional use with a maximum of two years of suspension, four years for intentionality, and in some cases, the agency reserves the right to suspension for life based on the seriousness of the charge.

منذ 2004، اعتمد العالم الرياضي بأكمله -متضمنا فيفا- هذا التعريف، رغم كون وكالة "WADA" "وكالة دولية مستقلة لا تنتمي إلى كيانات رياضية حاكمة"، وقبيل مونديال 2010، قررت الوكالة مضاعفة عقوبة التهمة للمدانين أول مرة لتصل إلى أربعة أعوام، ولكنها في الوقت ذاته، قررت العفو عنهم في حال قدموا معلومات مهمة تساعد الوكالة على التعرف على متهمين أكثر وأخطر. (3)

هذه التفصيلة تحديدا حولت المنشطات إلى تهمة جنائية تعادل جرائم الحرب، ولكنها، في الوقت ذاته، ألمحت -ربما دون دراية- إلى الصعوبات التي تواجهها الوكالة في الكشف عن هذه النشاطات. العفو عن 4 سنوات من الإيقاف، والسماح للمتعاطي بأن يستأنف مسيرته دون عقوبة، مقابل معلومات، يوحي بقدر لا بأس به من اليأس.

قد يكون هذا اليأس راجعا بالأساس إلى كون إحصائيات تلك القضايا -صدِّق أو لا تُصدِّق- مثالية لدرجة عسيرة التصديق؛ تخيل أنه من ضمن 33277 اختبارا حول العالم في 2016 مثلا، 97 عينة فقط كانت إيجابية بنسبة 0.29%. للقياس؛ 33277 اختبارا يغطون تقريبا نصف عدد لاعبي كرة القدم المحترفين المسجلين من النساء والرجال على سطح الكوكب. (3)

هذا يعني أنه، طبقا للاحتمالات الحسابية على الأقل، كان هناك 194 لاعب/لاعبة كرة قدم يتعاطون المنشطات في 2016 من إجمالي 65000 مسجلين حول العالم. هذا يعادل تقريبا نصف نسبة الحاصلين على الدكتوراه من عموم سكان إيطاليا وبولندا واليونان في 2017 طبقا لـ "World Population Review"، وبالتالي يمكنك تفهم هذه الدرجة من اليأس. (6)

على الأغلب، تعود جذور تلك القسوة اليائسة إلى عصر المنشطات الذهبي في التسعينيات ومطلع الألفية، عندما كان لا يمر على كرة القدم بضع سنوات حتى تخرج فضيحة جديدة للنور، لعل أبرزها على الإطلاق كان فضيحة مارادونا في مونديال الولايات المتحدة الأميركية 1994.

عليّ وعلى أصدقائي

دييغو مارادونا (غيتي)

بعد إيقافه لخمسة عشر شهرا بين 1991 و1992 بسبب تعاطيه الكوكايين رفقة زميله في هجوم الأرجنتين، كلاوديو كانيغيا، لم يكن الكثيرون يتوقعون أن يكون لمارادونا دور مؤثر في مونديال 1994، ولكن بعد تسجيل هدف وصناعة آخر في أول مباراتين ضد اليونان ونيجيريا، جاء فحص المنشطات ليثبت احتواء عينة الأرجنتيني على خمسة متحورات من الإيفدرين، المادة المنشطة المحظورة من الاتحاد الدولي آنذاك. (7)

مباراة بلغاريا التالية كانت لتسجل رقما قياسيا جديدا باسم دييغو؛ 22 مباراة بكأس العالم، وكما هو متوقع، هُزمت فيها الأرجنتين بهدفين نظيفين، وغادرت البطولة، وأصدر الاتحاد الأرجنتيني قرارا بإيقاف دييغو، ولم يصدر أي بيان للتعليق على الواقعة، تاركا الساحة لصانع ألعابه لإطلاق مجموعة خاصة جدا من التصريحات والمزاعم اليائسة، التي لم تفعل شيئا سوى قطع الشك في تهمته.

"لقد عزلوني من كرة القدم.. لا أعتقد أنني أحتاج إلى انتقام آخر، لقد كُسرت روحي!". (7)

(Maradona)

The first of these statements was an attempt to attract the sympathy of the public and the International Federation headed by Brazilian Joao Havelange with emotional statements like the previous one. Then, Maradona claimed that his failure in the test was due to one of the medications he usually takes to treat some allergy symptoms, and that the responsibility does not fall on him because he told the team doctor about it, only to come out Michel Duge, doctor and member of the FIFA Executive Committee, stressing that this cannot be true, simply because the five variants of ephedrine found in Diego's sample are not present in a single drug. In short, the only explanation is that the Argentine took a "cocktail" of drugs to produce these results, Duggie said. (7)

This farce lasted until 2011, when Maradona came out on Argentine television to announce that what happened in 1994 was nothing but the tip of the iceberg; the Australia match, which qualified Argentina for the World Cup in the first place, saw all the players of the team ingest banned doping, and Julio Grondona, the vice-president of the International Federation and president of the Argentine federation at the same time, knew everything about it. (8)

"They give the federation 10 chances to detect doping, but in the only game that will decide whether to go to the United States, there were no tests. That's the trick, and Grondona knew everything about it." (8)

"Before the Australia game. Give each player in the national team a cup of "fast coffee". They put something in that coffee, so we ran more than usual." (8)

The irony here is that after Maradona's suspension in 1994, and before this revelation, Joseph Blatter, then FIFA Secretary General, rejected the Nigerian FBY's claims to approve his country's victory over Argentina based on the doping scandal. (7)

Of course, this was not the only time that Maradona came out with a confession that torpedoed his country's career in one of the most important tournaments; the same man said in another television interview in 2005 that the claims of Branco, Brazil's left-back at the 1990 World Cup in Italy, that he felt dizzy after eating a bottle of water from Argentina's medical staff while treating one of their players were true, and that Diego himself encouraged the Brazilian players to drink the water that his team's doctors carried to the stadium, knowing that it contained a substance Diluted psychedelic will affect their performance. Of course, he is talking about specific bottles with a different color cap intended for Brazilian players, which all his teammates knew about. (9)

One Hundred Years of "Erythropoietin"

Jaap Stam (Getty Images)

A small window, because – surprisingly – the recorded facts are very numerous, but each incident indicated something bigger, deeper and worse, and if you are now feeling what we expect you to feel – disgust – you may understand Del Bosque's statement now; whether you are involved or not, you will probably prefer to ignore a topic like this, because any other solution means that you are exposing yourself to an unbearable trauma.

This is what many felt when they ate their breakfast on the morning of November 2001, <>, and their eyes fell on the headline of The Telegraph:

"Jaap Stam joins the list of big names accused of football's dark secret." (10)

Jaap Stam, defender of Lazio, AC Milan and Manchester United, was convicted along with his Dutch team-mates Edgar Davids and Frank de Boer, of taking "nodrolone", one of the banned stimulants as I expected. (10) (11)

To many, it seemed like a long-awaited logical explanation for Davids' inexhaustible energy throughout the ninety minutes of a match, and then teammate Bert Countermann came out to confirm that it was all a coincidence, because the trio got the "Nonderolone" because it was used by some Dutch farmers to inject some of the livestock from which the trio ate. (12)

Of course, the allegation sparked a storm of anger against Counterman in some Dutch farmers' unions and groups, and ended up without further investigation or investigation, asking more questions than he answered. (12)

"Those who say football doesn't have a doping problem know nothing. This is nonsense!"

(German journalist Hago Siebelt, author of the documentary "Doping Indictment"). East Germany's Sports Legacy," told CNN in 2016. (13))

Apparently, this is the norm of doping issues in general: discovering one of them is like seeing a flying saucer in the sky, and there is a moment when emotions oscillate between fear of being ignored and fear of believing, when fans are qualified to adopt any explanation that seems logical, and most importantly not to review 150 years of tournaments and titles – because no one wants to – or to admit that Lithuania is the historic champion deserving of the World Cup with nine titles. (14)

Paul Pogba (Getty Images)

In fact, Paul Pogba's current case, where an extra proportion of testosterone, the male hormone, was found in his sample, may remind WADA of the case that prompted the whole world to adopt its strict definition of the doping charge, the case in which the world discovered that Juventus players were taking the stimulant hormone erythropoietin regularly. AAA. Are you ready? Between 1994 and 1998. (11) (15) (16) (17) (18)

This period saw Juventus win three league titles, one cup title, one Italian Super Cup, another for the Champions League and one for the European Super Cup.

When was the incident discovered? in 2002, four years after the end of that period. Who was accused in the case? Antonio Geraudo, then CEO of the club, and the team doctor, Riccardo Agricola. When was the verdict issued? Two years later, in 2004. Who was convicted in the case? Riccardo Agricola with twenty-two months in prison. Have the files of that period been reopened or any titles withdrawn from Juventus? No. Most lawyers also predicted that if Agricola's appeal was accepted, "the court will often suspend execution, because that's what Italian courts usually do with first-time convicts." (17)

Did Agricola resume? I don't know. Has his appeal been accepted? Go back to the previous answer. Did he spend one day in prison? I don't know. Are Juventus, Maradona and the Dutch trio the only issues? Of course not, what is mentioned here is the tip of the iceberg. Is there more we don't know? Logically, that is supposed to be the truth. Is everyone involved to some degree? No one would be shocked if it turned out to be so. Is football fair? Can we trust its results? What have we been doing for the past hundred and fifty years? What are we going to do tomorrow? (11) (17)

These are topics that we prefer to ignore.

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Sources:

  • 1- The Five Stages of Grief – Healthline
  • 2- The meaning of the Italian word Omerta – Dictionary
  • 3. Doping in football; what is it? And why do players do it? The most famous facts – Goal
  • 4- Andre Onana for the mistake that led to his nine-month suspension – The Guardian
  • 5- World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) – WADA Regulation
  • 6- Percentage of holders of PHD degrees in the countries of the world – World Population Review
  • 7- The 1994 World Cup, after the second test. Maradona outside the World Cup – The New York Times
  • 8. Maradona claims Argentina players doping ahead of 1994 World Cup qualifier against Australia – Daily Mail
  • 9- Brazil revives Argentine drug issue after 15 years! – The Guardian
  • 10- Jaap Stam joins the big names accused of football's dark secret – The Telegraph
  • 11. Kyle Walker and the 10 Biggest Doping Scandals in Football History – BR
  • 12- Bert Counterman weighs in, Dutch farmers claim he lost his mind in doping scandal – The Free Library
  • 13. Euro 2016; doping in football. The hidden part of the iceberg – CNN
  • 14- Aliens among us? New UFO Watch in Vegas! – USA TODAY
  • 15 - Who is Paul Pogba, the world's most expensive player who was suspended for doping – The Economic Times
  • 16. "Football is beautiful but cruel"; The sad side of Paul Pogba's collapse – The Guardian
  • 17- Juventus doctor convicted of giving steroids – The Guardian
  • 18- The doping scandal that desecrated the name of the Juventus team in the nineties – The Independent