Coppell slams "ridiculous' drug tests

Anthony Smith • Published 13 Nov 2008 09:00 0 Comments

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STEVE Coppell has labelled proposals to subject footballers to Olympic-style drug testing as "totally ridiculous."

Plans to randomly test England and Premier League footballers out of competition caused controversy when they were announced this week.

As with British Olympic athletes, players will have to reveal their whereabouts for an hour each day as part of the World Anti-Doping Agency's code which aims to bring football in line with other sports like rugby and cricket.

But Reading manager Coppell believes the latest measures are a step too far. "It's totally ridiculous," Coppell told the Reading Chronicle.

"The whole process takes up so much of the physio's time and the secretary's time. I'm not putting my head in the sand here and because if there is a performance enhancing drug in football I'm all for eradicating it.

"But I'm not sure there has ever been a case of someone being caught with a performance enhancing drug in their system. There have been cases of recreational drugs and mistakes with cold treatments and such, but we're using a sledgehammer to crack a nut here."

And he argued: "The drug-testing process in athletics is used across the board. But I don't believe the same rules apply in soccer because you are not trying to peak for one day a year, you play 50 or 60 games across a full season.

"Football's not an endurance event nor a power event where steroids could help. It's an "in-between' event."

And Coppell said it was the process of drug-testing which often rubs managers up the wrong way. Royals team-coach was delayed by an hour recently because teenager Jem Karacan could not produce a urine sample.

"Five or six of them come in and take over the place," he explained. "They did it to us recently after we'd won at Wolves when Jem Karacan was tested.

"The problem is most players can't pee after a game because they're dehydrated so I asked them why they didn't do it before kick-off, but they didn't have an answer. It's just one big inconvenience.

"I could understand it if there was a massive problem but there isn't. The whole thing must be costing football a fortune."

Meanwhile, Coppell believes the Football Association's "Respect' campaign will only work if video technology is introduced in football.

The scheme has been criticised for not working following a recent spate of flare-ups between players and managers and match officials.

Coppell said: "Parts of it are working, parts of it aren't, But there is such a big focus on referees now that it is rare for a team to get beaten without there being some controversial decision.

"I believe you can improve referees. Goalline technology is available but, for some reason, the powers that be don't do anything about it.

"English football is probably the most in the world in terms of scrutiny. It can be improved but the process of gong to Fifa, Uefa and numerous committees is too cumbersome. Football needs to be able to react more quickly."

And he added: "I'm all for referees getting help from technology. It's about making the correct decision rather than someone's interpretation of what happened because these days there is so much at stake."

This article appeared in Reading Chronicle 13 Nov 08

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