Ramos drugs leak just goes to prove football needs to act fast on anti-doping policy
HARD to imagine Sergio Ramos being anything other than a sneaky, talismanic centre-half... but, for a moment, imagine that he was a professional cyclist.
An elbows-out, wheelclipping one, no doubt, but a professional cyclist all the same.
Now imagine his doctor had injected him with a drug before the biggest race of his life but had written down the name of a different drug when informing anti-doping officials.
And then imagine the excuse for this ‘error’ was the ‘euphoria’ of a victory and the post-match visit of a monarch.
That, allegedly, is why the medic made the mistake that ended with Ramos being tested positive for dexamethasone after Real Madrid’s Champions League final win over Juventus in Cardiff in 2017.
Ramos, who needed two hours to provide a sample, was visited by King Juan Carlos and the ‘euphoria’ of it all obviously got to him and his doctor.
This is the same Ramos, incidentally, who was reported to have breached Spanish FA rules in April when refusing to give a sample until after he had showered following a game against Malaga.
According to the Football Leaks website, Ramos’s doctor in 2017 declared he had administered an antiinflammatory called betamethasone when he had, in fact, administered dexamethasone.
Easy mistake to make. We all do it.
Both drugs are on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s banned list UNLESS they are declared at the time of a test. It is a type of Therapeutic Use Exemption. The revelations from Football Leaks, via the German newspaper Der Spiegel, are unlikely to be disputed but UEFA insist that everything was dealt with appropriately.
They accepted an ‘apology’ for the ‘mix-up’ with a fourline letter from Ramos blaming the club doctor for failing to declare the use of dexamethasone.
UEFA responded: “In the future, we ask you and your team doctor to be of the utmost caution when completing the doping control form and more precise when declaring medication.”
Blimey. Tough on drugs and the causes of drugs.
Look, there is nothing to suggest Ramos has done anything wrong – other than put Mo Salah out of last season’s Champions League final, flatten Loris Karius and smash Milan Havel’s nose with the sneakiest of elbows the other week, of course.
But that it has taken a whistle-blowing website to reveal that the Cardiff ‘mix-up’ actually happened is a damning insight into football’s attitude to anti-doping.
UEFA’s response to the test was to simply ask Ramos to make sure it did not happen again and to make sure his doctor – even if dizzied by the presence of royalty – did not get things muddled.
Dexamethasone was the substance found in boxer Eric Molina’s system after his 2016 fight against Anthony Joshua (left). Molina was banned from his sport for two years.
UEFA absolutely deny suggestions of cover-up. Real Madrid deny any wrongdoing.
Fair enough. We take their word for it. And no fair judge could think of Ramos as some sort of cheat, could they? Imagine that.
But also imagine if Ramos was a professional cyclist. What would we be thinking?
It looks like evidence that when it comes to an ultrarigorous anti-doping policy, football really needs to get pedalling, fast.