Drugs, Football and of course El Diego!!!

"My body might be impure but the ball has always been pure"

Words of Diego

I am currently reading the biography of Diego Maradona and thought it fitting to express my opinion on the doping controversy that surrounded him.

Diego was initially caught in Napoli for the use Cocaine shortly after WC 90- to be precise 13 months after the WC in Italy. Cocaine is a stress reliever and Diego used it to go to cloud number 9. It was well known in Napoli during his stay from 1984 to 1991 that Diego was addicted to Cocaine. In fact, it is well documented that Diego got this Cocaine addiction through the numerous and notorious drug mafia contacts . The arrest of Maradona was more of a revenge especially after Maradona's argentina had eliminated Italy in the semi-finals which was held in Napoli. (Trivia: A certain Fabio Cannavarro was the ball boy in the game between Italy and Argentina in Napoli). Adding fuel to fire, prior to that game Maradona urged the Neapolitians to support Argentina over Italy. This remark was not taken kindly by the Italians and resulted in the home crowd even booing the Argentine national anthem in the finals held at the Olympicio stadium in Roma. Note that Cocaine has no performance enhancements it is just used to go to cloud number 9.

The arrest and the subsequent disgraceful exit of Diego from Napoli was just the end of a love-hate relationship with Italy and in particular with Napoli. Maradona deserved no mercy and was rightly banned from top-flight football. However, FIFA agreed to the participation of El Diego in the 1994 WC. The team managed by a certain Alfio Basile (well he is now the current coach of the Argentina) played some entertaining and attractive football before being eliminated by Romania in the Round of 16. However, prior to that game , on the very morning, Diego was tested positive for Ephedrine. The physchological impact of this incident resulted in the team morale being at its lowest and Argentina thus got eliminated and Maradona got disgraced, well now in a bigger stage.
There are many stories still floating around ranging from a FIFA conspiracy to an Argentine treachery for the exact reason of Diego's disgrace.

I am in not going into the nitty gritty details of all these theories. However, it is very interesting to note the controvery surrounding the drug Epherdrine. It is , in fact, no longer a banned substance according to WADA (World Anti Doping Agency). The prime reason being that there is no evidence correlating the intake of Ephedrine and increase of stamina/energy level. Additionally, the tests for ephedrine are also reported to be very dicey!!!
Surely, Maradona was hard done by Ephedrine.

Now let me come to the exact reason for this post. I was listening to a debate, a very predictable one, on who is the greatest footballer of all times. Time and again, the drug abuse of Maradona was used to degrade his talent and skills. Unfortunately, the experts who were participating were of the impression that Maradona was a cheat/lier and a big fraud in football. The so called punters were totally ignorant of the drug he used!!!.

Further, the so-called punters are also ignorant of another fact. It was very common in the 1950-60's for football clubs to encourage the use of stamina/energy enhancers. In fact, the 1958 manager of Botafogo (a club in Rio De Janerio in Brazil) the late Jose Saldanha has stated publicly that the team doctor was asked to prescribe performance enhancers (read drugs) for key players. There was of course no drug testing at that time and hence the players/coaches got away with it. Botafogo had Garricnha (the greatest right winger), Nilton Santos (the greatest LB), Didi (the cerebral footballer who invented the now famous kick named the fallen leaf). Saldanha also went on to coach Santos in Sao Paulo (I am not sure I may be wrong here) which had a certain Pele in their squad.

My case rests here, Need I say any more?

Edit: I have no intentions of maligning these players. It may as well have been that Pele/Garrincha/Didi etal. wud have rejected the drug or Saldanha wud have wanted some media attention. I just wanted to point out the fact that drugs were commonly used and some players might as well have taken advantage of it. Players from the earlier era were not subjected to media/technology glare and hence are always wrongly thought to be innocent in this respect.