Arsene Wenger says that UEFA’s current rules mean they accept doping, coming in the wake of a positive test for Dinamo Zagreb’s Arijan Ademi.
The Macedonian midfielder was handed a four year ban last week for his offence, but regulations say that if only one player is caught then the result remains.
It’s something the manager is unhappy with, saying, “It’s a surprising rule. Uefa applies the rule that is planned but I personally don’t agree with it. You cannot say that they had a doped player but the result stands.
“That means you basically accept doping. But it is the rule and we accept that, we have to look at ourselves and deal with our own performance.”
It’s the latest in a series of comments from Wenger about doping in the game, the silence from almost every other quarter is deafening.
Asked if he would have the support of other managers, he said, “I don’t know if I would have the support of anybody.
“What I do know is I came out on that, and as a result we had a doping control from UEFA on Friday! We had 10 people on Friday to control us!”
Nice work, UEFA.
UEFA visit on Friday and then we lost on Saturday. Very suspicious…
Arsene clearly forgot to go to the cashpoint before they arrived.
UEFA are a corrupt bunch of cunts? This is news to me!
Ronaldo blatantly jacked up!
On cake.
Cake is a made up drug.
Just ask Bernard Manning. One woman threw up her whole pelvis whilst on cake.
A young user of Cake is known to have cried all the water from his body
13 teenagers were trampled to death in a cow field at midnight taking cake.
It influences a part of the brain known as “Shatner’s Bassoon”
Hmm…sometimes I wish Wenger is more savvy.
We have an ongoing injury crisis (same story every year!), we don’t have to get on the wrong side of the establishment now.
Win the League title and during the summer bring it up?! The Arsenal title challenge doesn’t have to come under additional pressure. Unless we are worried about one of the challengers doping…excessively (I’m looking at the Tots here but they really aren’t challenges and never will be!).
Savvy? He had the balls to say his side could go a season unbeaten……. what happened a season later?
I must borrow a phrase from the mancs in blue… BOO!
Always makes me laugh when you see people suggesting Wenger would make a great politician or FIFA president/ elected official.
He would be an absolute nightmare for these people.
I personally wish he’d leave it now, he’s too old for it and it’s tough seeing him taking on these corrupt fuckers by himself. It’s FFP all over again and it won’t change anything, just gives people another angle to deride him.
Can’t see the reason for the downvotes, Vino’s right. I’d like Wenger to clean things up as much as the next guy, but like hell that’s gonna happen. Can dream tho
I find Wenger’s incessant moaning about things beyond his control embarrassing.
Is the most important thing in Wenger’s world right now drugs in football?
If it’s not drug’s, it’s the cost of players and if not that it’s financial doping, all things completely beyond his control.
If he was as passionate about building the best squad as he possibly could as he is about the things i’ve mentioned above we’d be unbeatable!
You don’t see the picture mate. In press conferences, as a manager, you are asked to answer questions from lazy journos. I’m pretty sure Wenger was asked about the doping thing since the Dinamo guy failed his drug test after the win against us. It was the pre-Dinamo press conference after all. If Wenger knows more than we do about doping in football, which I’m sure he does, and he’s clearly unhappy with the situation, why wouldn’t he address it? FIFA, UEFA, FA etc. have to be constantly challenged.
Firstly this is the second time he’s brought this up in a week and the first time regarding Dinamo specifically. Secondly, why is he unhappy about it? Did we lose because the Dinamo player failed a drug test or because we underestimated a team that hadn’t won a champions league game for decades? He should have just said those are the rules and we accept them, otherwise it just looks like sour grapes. His response in my opinion was unbecoming of an Arsenal manager, he basically said the result should have been changed, it’s pathetic. Arsenal shouldn’t need UEFA overturning… Read more »
He didn’t bring it up twice, journos did. UEFA and Fifa have to be challenged constantly otherwise they become what they are. Corrupt, lazy and inconsistent.
Probably because most of their team was doped, they’re a pretty scummy outfit with their owner going to jail or something. We didn’t play at our best but they were better than they should have been. I think Arsene is actually pissed off about it and trying to raise the issue, but the silence from other managers is deafening. I wonder if UEFA have also shown up at Dinamo Zageb.
3 of them were tested, 1 failed otherwise the result would have been changed, so thats the whole team argument gone. The silence of other managers isn’t deafening, it’s because they concentrate on what they can control not what they can’t. They make sure it isn’t happening at their club and leave the rest to the authorities. Is the fact that every other manager in Europe’s top leagues signed out field players in the summer evidence of compliance in a Europe wide conspiracy to rig price at Arsenal’s expense? No it isn’t. He should just keep his mouth shut and… Read more »
See you next Tuesday
Doping in football is basically the elephant in the room. It’s there, plain as fuck, but no one dares talk about it.
Blimy! This is getting un-Wengeristic.
Interesting that Wenger is being derided in this forum. Those who say they wish he would stay quiet, reveal their qualities……………which I could never support. To invoke a paradigm shift, means a strong character must set the precedent. If you are an Arsenal fan, you should be honoured that such a man is involved in the club you support.
Why? Because some of us don’t have time for his conspiracy theory bullshit?
These are his unsubstantiated suspicions and he doesn’t have a shred of proof otherwise the FA/UEFA/FIFA and the press would be all over it like a rash.
He should be focusing his energy on Arsenal not the opposition.
It’s hardly unsubstantiated when we’re playing against a team who, the last time we played them, had at least one player who was drugged. They should have tested the rest of the Dinamo team after the first player failed his test to see if it was an isolated incident or systemic cheating…
One player of three that were tested and the substance has yet to be confirmed, it could be caugh medicine for all know.
It had no bearing on Giroud getting sent off like an idiot in the first half and the rest of the team playing like it was a stroll in the park, we only have ourselves to blame
Conspiracy theory bullshit? You’d have to be blind or wilfully ignorant not to see there’s doping in football. It more than likely cost him the CL in 2006. At the very least. He’s absolutely right to raise it. And he’s doing so in a very dignified way. I applaud him and hope he continues to bring it up until such time as the establishment are embarrassed enough to have to do something about it. Must piss him off royally hearing his team slated, when he knows full well some of the competition are on PEDs, blood doping and blood-spinning. To… Read more »
Oh my you need help, doping cost him the Champions League final in 2006?!? Were the moon landings filmed in a studio as well and have you seen big foot? Let’s ignore that Lehmann got sent off after ten minutes why don’t we!
You’ve contradicted yourself if he hasn’t seen it he doesn’t know it’s happening, and if you cry wolf you better make sure there’s a wolf in front of you otherwise you lose all credibility.
Just as I said; you’d have to be blind or wilfully ignorant not to see there’s doping in football. The elevated red blood cell count of players he’s purchased, along with Operation Puerto and Fuentes’s claim that Real Madrid still owe him a debt. The blood bags titled RSOC, the nickname Nandrelona. Fuentes said if you think cycling is bad, you should see football and tennis. Chelsea blood spinning as far back as 2004… not that big a leap to blood doping, is it? Rio skipping a drug test & phoning his urologist. Guardiola being banned for PEDs… then the… Read more »
Deary me, you need help
Oh and as for the CL final – it’s you that seems to be ignoring things… like the fact we were winning until into stoppage time, despite the sending off.
So should Lance Armstrong just be given his Tour De France wins back… there is no issue here? should all those that didn’t cheat just accept it?
I don’t understand you argument?
To call it a conspiracy is a little daft seeing as one of their players was found to have used banned substances after the Arsenal game and has been banned for four years as a result – hardly equals an conspiracy…?
The interesting thing about Armstrong’s titles is that no one has asked to be awarded the winner, which goes to show how endemic doping was. It seems to me that it was a level playing field it that regards. As I’ve said, Wenger can not control or master other teams and should concentrate on building the beat Arsenal team he can. I hate cheating and am in no way condoning it but at no point have I ever thought during the hundreds of Arsenal loses that I’ve watched that any of our competitors won because they were doped including the… Read more »
the same theory bullshit that some CLUB was cheating when he was manager of Monaco…… he was right of course while everyone was saying he was just bad looser and couldnt prove it
Marseillle anf their owner were found Guilty of paying team to win
I
Marseille weren’t exposed by Wenger for bribery and match fixing so I don’t know wheat you’re talking about.
they werent exposed by him but he was one of the few who were saying that some match result were fixed.
Do you really think uefa or fifa would be all over something which could damage the reputation of the game further, with huge sponsorship money at risk? No, they wouldn’t. They would brush it under the carpet as always. Do wish some people would think before posting.
I wish Wenger would explain the thinking behind going into a season with one proper DM. It’s weird how the journo’s never ask questions that hold the manager to account!
Maybe because even before Coq’s miraculous transformation we had Arteta and Flamini as the DM options? Ramsey and Wilshere were also used there too.
To say we had one proper DM is incorrect. Full stop.
Anyone who thinks otherwise isn’t paying much attention or is just serving their own agenda.
Sir, you have a little bit of a potty mouth.
That was it, not Larsson’s great touch or Almunia’s bad keeping, it was drugs! I’d lay off whatever drugs you’re on if I was you!
Eat a snickers…
I’d even suggest a bottle of bleach. But in seriousness the man is rabid over our manager trying to change the game for the better, what the hell is his problem?!
I’m sorry i don’t suffer from the same leave of neurosis and the rest of the readership of this article does!
level* not leave
Yes mate that’s the reason an overwhelming number of posters here disagree with you or find your opinion on the matter worryingly vacuous. I mean, it could be that your comments reek of childish spite and antagonism towards a very dignified man, who also happens to try and make a significant change in his workplace for a fairer environment. But no! We’re all neurotic people because we dared disagreeing with you, the only sane Arsenal fan in existence. Makes perfect sense.
When you can come up with a coherent argument on how widespread club sanctioned doping of entire teams operates i’ll agree with you. When you can explain how dozens of club employees all conspire to cheat without any descent from any of them over numerous years i’ll agree with you. When you can explain to me how you keep disgruntled ex-employees, players, managers, agents, ex-wifes, ex-girlfriends all quiet i’ll agree with you. To me there are far too many weak links in this conspiracy to make it remotely plausible, individuals cheating i can see, the level that some are talking… Read more »
Making some comments about doping in press conferences does not interfere with Wenger’s job.
Personally it makes me sick to my stomach that any of our main challengers/rivals may have been beating us in recent years whilst cheating with drugs.
[Comment edited as per our comment policy – http://news.arseblog.com/comment-policy/%5D
Doping is a problem in football, glad Wenger has the balls to reiterate it (when asked).
John C – know when you lost a discussion. Your points are flawed. Your clear and apparent dislike for Wenger has lead to accept doping in football, good on you.
The whole premise of systematic doping in football is almost impossible to maintain on a team basis, maybe individuals but not a team, that requires hundreds of people to maintain the conspiracy. Who head’s up this doping program? The Chairman? The Manager? Most managers don’t last more than a few months in any job, hardly enough time to run a successful doping program is it? Does the chairman during the interview process ask if the manager if he is happy presiding over his doping program or does it just get sprung on him once he’s accepted the job? That’s presuming… Read more »
In the US, baseball doping was condoned under the banner of ‘doping doesn’t make your faster or improve hand to eye coordination’, so its ok. I see a number of apologists here sharing similar sentiments.
In today’s world of fluid morality, it may be OK to dope. And if so, let everyone do it and lets watch a bunch of supermen (with a short shelf life) play the game. Its time to stop the tacit wink and nod.
What the hell is caugh medicine?