DOPING-CONTROL officials have rebutted claims that English and Spanish clubs are dominating the Champions League because their players are taking drugs.
Corriere dello Sport, the daily sports newspaper based in Rome, questioned why there is no Italian club in the last eight of the competition and particularly why AS Roma lost to Liverpool last week. It quoted Fabio Capello as noting the stamina of the Liverpool players, with the Roma coach adding: “It's not a question of technique or tactics. There's something else.”
Under a front-page headline “Europe: doping suspected”, the paper claimed that there are only 1,000 annual drug tests on players in Spain and 600 in England, compared with 5,000 in Italy. It also ran pictures of Emile Heskey and Vladimir Smicer, captioned: “Note the powerful physiques of the England players.”
But, Alan Hodson, the FA's administrator of doping control, said yesterday that last season there were 1,054, tests carried out in English football. “If Emile Heskey and Vladimir Smicer have been accused of taking drugs, those that suspect them should not do so without substantiating these allegations,” Hodson said. The Liverpool squad has been randomly tested five times this season.