The fact that English football had escaped a major controversy involving a performance-enhancing anabolic steroid for so long was widely believed to have more to do with the Football Association's drug-testing system than with the angelic innocence of the players.
Yesterday's announcement from the FA that an unnamed player had tested positive for nandrolone, although the first result of its kind in this country, will probably do little to alter that perception.
Football can claim to be the most tested sport in Britain. In 2001-02 1,137 tests were carried out at a cost of £400,000, but a top player is still far less likely to be asked for a urine sample than a competitor in athletics, the next most tested sport. Last season there was random testing at only eight Premiership matches.
In Italy two players from each Serie A and B side are tested after every match and approximately 5,000 tests are carried out each season, as many as have been conducted in England during the past seven years.
West Ham's Paolo Di Canio claims he has been tested only twice during his six-year spell in English football and is sceptical about how serious the FA is about catching the cheats.
"On one occasion, no one was there because we were playing away," he said. "I was injured so I was training on my own, and that is why I was tested. Why visit a team when you know they're not going to be there?"
In many cases the FA is not even looking for performance-enhancing drugs. Nearly half the 1,000 tests carried out each season are analysed only for recreational drugs, such as cannabis and ecstasy.