Official Football Thread

Albie said:
Both the BBC and Sky Sports had to explain what is meant by the "specified substance" so it is even ambiguous to English speakers. So, of to WADA I went and found this:
Source - expand on "Why was methylexaneamine reclassified from a “non-specified” stimulant to a “specified” stimulant?"

He probably smoked a bit of dope.
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Or, as quite often happens, he took some cough syrup (or something similar) which had a banned substance in it. Even if this is the explaination, it's a stupid thing to do as he should only be taking stuff which has been okayed by the club doctors.
 
So it turns out it was a dietary supplement. Stupid mistake to make, as you say.

I remember Daley Thompson saying that one of the best things about retiring from athletics was been able to take cough medicine. Seriously, for such a short career and been paid huge amounts of money surely these people can put aside digesting anything that could remotely be deemed as a banned substance. They would have the best advisers around them, especially at the very top of the game, and mistakes like that should not happen.
 
So, the banned substance is ephedrine or something like that, and he got it through food? Hmmm. Then he's done a mistake, but nothing really bad. Probably means he'll be let off the hook with a warning?
 
A little digression about doping:

Some of the competitors in the cross-country skiing elite have raised questions about why some of their opponents are allowed to use otherwise banned substances to treat asthma - and argue that it would be just the same if an athlete with a low red blood cell count (compared to other athletes) was allowed to use EPO. The most prominent skier who has spoken about this is Polish Justina Kowalczyk, who has accused some of the other top athletes of cheating. (It should be pointed out that the use of the asthma medicines has been cleared with the anti-doping authorities and the international skiing federation (FIS). Still, it raises a principal question: If you have a condition (like asthma) which would otherwise prevent you from competing at top level, should you be allowed to treat it - even if it involves use of substances that other athletes are not allowed to use? I'd say yes, provided the substance doesn't give you an unfair advantage, but just brings you to the level you'd have without your disease. Whether it is the case for any particular drug, would of course be up to doctors to decide.

In football, I have the impression that regular drug testing is quite recent (last ten years or so) - before that, it was much more sporadic, and further back, non-existent. Wasn't there some ex-Juventus players who told they had used doping systematically there?
 
Eddies Wingman said:
So, the banned substance is ephedrine or something like that, and he got it through food? Hmmm. Then he's done a mistake, but nothing really bad. Probably means he'll be let off the hook with a warning?
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Not necessarily. QPR's current keeper Paddy Kenny was banned for 9 months a couple of years ago for taking something which was in over-the-counter cold medicine. It might depend if the authorities want to make an example of him, or if they maybe need to adhere to strict regulations which specify a ban for any misuse.

That's an interesting question you have about asthma there too, not sure what the solution should be though.
 
In a Colombian league game (Junior FC - Deportivo Pereira) one of the defenders of Pereira (Luis Moreno) kicked an owl who fell to the pitch. The owl is dead. Son of a bitch. You can see the video here .
 
maidenhead1996 said:
In a Colombian league game (Junior FC - Deportivo Pereira) one of the defenders of Pereira (Luis Moreno) kicked an owl who fell to the pitch. The owl is dead. Son of a bitch. You can see the video here .
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Yeah I saw that a few days ago, don't much feel like watching it again. The owl was the other team's mascot. Horrible thing to do.
 
Rome are out, which is good for fans of the remaining clubs. An away trip to Rome always involves the risk of a knife in your buttocks.

Impressive show by Barcelona against Arsenal - their aggressiveness off the ball was just what I missed in Man Utd against Liverpool on Sunday, and on the ball they were of course in control as usual. I really don't think the sending-off (a harsh one!) changed a lot. Barcelona dominated before it, and they dominated after it. One can say they got lucky towards the end, when a last-second tackle denied Arsenal 3-2 which would have seen them through on away goals. Still, the Catalans had plenty of those, especially in the first half. If they can keep on like this, they'll be firm favourites to win the trophy back from Inter.

Tonight we have Spurs v Milan, that should be interesting. Spurs have a lead to defend, but as we know, they live by the motto "attack is the best defense". Potentially classic match.
 
Just to comment on Van Persie's red card. Guy lost his nerves probably because Arsenal couldn't keep the ball for more than 5 seconds or two passes in first half. Technically speaking, playing after the whistle gets you yellow card, that's what the "referee's manual" says, however most of them don't obey it because there's a 100.000 people on stadium cheering and you just can't be sure that the player heard the judge's whistle.

So the second yellow wasn't "illegal", but it was too harsh. However, he should have received a direct red card when he slapped Dani Alves in the face, without any intention to get the ball. Like i said, guy lost his nerves and started acting stupid.
 
I don't think that incident which led to his first yellow qualified for red - from the replays it was clear that the contact was minimal. The fact that Dani Alves is good at making it look dramatic, doesn't make the actual offense worse. (Hell, I think some Barcelona players dramatize situations so bad they deserve a slap in the face. Sergio Busquets, I'm looking at you). However, I agree RvP acted stupidly.

We agree that the second yellow was harsh - and personally, I think the referee shouldn't give the yellow in that kind of situations unless he is 100% sure the player has heard the whistle. Especially not a second yellow.
 
On the contrary, from replays i don't see contact as minimal, it was a targeted slap. Eg, one player targets another one's face with his hand, without any intention to win the ball. That's called non-sport behaviour and it's a clean red card.
 
Van Persie hit the ball, not 5 seconds, not 6 seconds, but only ONE second after the freakin' whistle. This happens all the time, without any punishment. What a bullshit to give a card for that, especially in Europe's most noisy stadium.

Magnus said:
I really don't think the sending-off (a harsh one!) changed a lot.
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Hmm, it is possible that a match can change in favour of another team. A red card isn't exactly helping to change a match in your favour. Only one more goal was needed to beat Barca.
 
It is possible, of course, but at the time when the sending-off came, Arsenal had not yet shown signs they were taking over. One can never know, but what we do know is that the match looked more or less the same before the sending-off and after.

national acrobat said:
Come on Spuds tonight.
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Agreed. May Mussolini's (sorry, Berlusconi's) club be kicked out of Europe.
 
Magnus said:
One can never know, but what we do know is that the match looked more or less the same before the sending-off and after.
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Can you imagine what might have happened if VP was not sent off?  :D
 
Forostar said:
Van Persie hit the ball, not 5 seconds, not 6 seconds, but only ONE second after the freakin' whistle. This happens all the time, without any punishment. What a bullshit to give a card for that, especially in Europe's most noisy stadium.
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It was a stupid decision. You only need to look at the players reaction to tell he actually did not hear the whistle.

Good luck to Spurs tonight.
 
Forostar said:
Can you imagine what might have happened if VP was not sent off?  :D
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I can imagine two scenarios:

1. Arsenal taking over and hanging on to the draw.

2. Barcelona keeping their dominance and eventually getting the goal(s) they needed.

We can never know with absolute certainty what would have happened with RvP on the pitch, but did you really see any signs of Arsenal starting to dominate?
 
Maybe a few... hard to say. Often at the end of a match a team gives everything it has, to get through.

My prediction for this season:
Bayern will win the CL. They were one of the best last year, and this time it's all they've left to fight for.
 
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