Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United boss and hall of fame football (soccer) manager, has criticized the implementation of new steroid testing rules in the Premier League as a “real nuisance.” Barclay’s Premier League is the world’s most lucrative professional football league. The implementation of more vigilant steroid testing protocols comes as UK Sports, the United Kingdom’s anti-doping agency, incorporates “in-competition” anti-doping testing that is more consistent with that of World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code (“Fergie Slams Drug Testing Reforms,” November 14).
“The procedures are becoming a real nuisance to us.”
Sir Alex Ferguson is particularly critical of the “whereabouts ruling.” The whereabouts ruling requires tested players to provide anti-doping officials with advance notification of their whereabouts for a particular hour each day year round.
“If you give a player a day off, you have to notify the FA and tell them them where the player will be for one hour during his day off. There are times when you might want to give a player a Sunday off, but you then have to notify the FA and tell them that they are not training and furnish them with the addresses where they will be.
“But you know what young people are like. They might be sat in the house when their wife asks them if they want to go shopping.
“They might even forget that, in that hour, the testers can turn up at the door.
“It’s very difficult to do it, but I can tell the FA that it will cost them an absolute fortune to implement all this.”
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has intensified pressure on governments and private sporting leagues around the world to make their respective anti-doping laws and regulations consistent with the WADA code such that everyone thinks alike and conforms to a defacto international anti-steroid policy.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s comments on the new steroid rules reflect a culture across the pond that has not been completely consumed by the anti-steroid hysteria seen in the United States whereby any and all means to eliminate doping is justified. In addition, the United Kingdom has favored harm reduction over the criminalization of the personal use of anabolic steroids for non-medical purposes even providing public needle exchange services for steroid users. The nonconformity and independence of the UK regarding steroid laws and regulations is refreshing.
About the author
Millard writes about anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs and their use and impact in sport and society. He discusses the medical and non-medical uses of anabolic-androgenic steroids while advocating a harm reduction approach to steroid education.
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