…catching the one player who has strayed, three times no less.
Guardian:
‘An English professional footballer has tested positive for cocaine three times in 18 months but will avoid a life ban. The teenager is instead to be sent for rehabilitation.
‘In any other Olympic sport, a competitor can expect to receive a life ban after the second offence. This latest incident coincides with the news that another unnamed player has been banned for six months after testing positive for cocaine. His case is set to be the only serious positive in quarterly figures released by UK Sport, the government organisation in charge of drug testing, at a meeting in London today
‘The fact the Football Association is refusing to take severe action or to identify the player will add to fears that it is refusing to take the problem seriously. The secrecy surrounding this most recent positive test, which is believed to involve a youth-team player from a club outside the Premiership, will strengthen calls in the independent Burns Report into the FA's structure for drugs cases to be heard in public, with published transcripts and a written explanation of decisions.
‘The FA's approach to doping is best summed up by the case involving the goalkeeper Billy Turley who, when playing for Rushden and Diamonds, tested positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone - which earned the 1992 Olympic 100 metres champion Linford Christie a two-year ban. Turley was given a warning and then a six-month ban when he subsequently tested positive for cocaine. In any other Olympic sport he would have been banned for life and the sports minister Richard Caborn asked the FA to explain why the ban was not more severe. Turley, who now plays for Oxford United, is not the player in the latest case.’
Best not to mention the Rio case then…