Rangers breach FIFA doping rules?

So now we have the truth – officially, from the mouths of Ally McCoist and Christian Dailly – that the “Ibrox four” who all started on Saturday were unfit to play and held together by resorting to extreme medical intervention.

McCoist has revealed that Barry Ferguson “has been given an injection for his ankle with a view to hopefully being involved” while “Christian has fractured a wee toe and it's extremely painful but we're hopeful he'll play along with the rest”.

And yet, those statements – plus the revelations of Dailly himself – raise more issues than they resolve.

Quoted in today’s Herald, Dailly reveals the thinking in the Ibrox medical room: “They don't like to give you a jab here. I would do anything to play, but that's not how Rangers like to do it. It's basically just the strongest tablets the doctor can find.”

Obviously, by McCoist’s own admission giving injections is how Rangers do it but Dailly’s comments point to other potentially far more serious issues.

"I'm totally loaded up and that was the only way I could get through it," he said. "I'm on everything. I'm peeing brown stuff. Even with all that, it was still sore."

"I'm going to try to play through it. The medical people will keep an eye on it."

The upshot of this is that there now appears to be a prima facie case against Rangers for breaching FIFA’s anti-doping guidelines.

The guidelines, published in association with the British Journal of Sports Medicine and WADA (the World Anti-Doping Agency) make it clear that unacceptable medical treatment to suppress the symptoms of injuries or over-exertion is prohibited, regardless of whether or not the substances used are on the current banned list.

“The modern professional football player can be overscheduled with a high match density because of domestic league, cups, tournaments and possible national team duty. Occupational medicine is not about trying to compensate for the ever-increasing demands on players through the use of pain killers or anti-phlogistic drugs.

“Continued treatment with these may have serious long-term consequences that can not be justified by occupational medicine nor medical ethics.”

DEFINITION OF DOPING

“Doping is any attempt either by a player, or at the instigation of another person such as a manager, coach, trainer, doctor, physiotherapist or masseur, to enhance mental and physical performance unphysiologically or to treat ailments or injury – when this is medically unjustified – for the sole purpose of taking part in a competition. Doping contravenes the ethics of sport, constitutes an acute or chronic health hazard for players, and may have fatal consequences…”

OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE

“Part of doping may come under the scope of occupational medicine. …

“It is a different proposition for professional footballers to take drugs to compensate for the ever-increasing demands made on them but the serious long-term consequences of such a practice cannot be justified. Even if there is no doping in terms of performance enhancing drugs being taken, it is still considered as treatment intended to suppress the symptoms of injuries and over-exertion.

“Only a firm stand taken by sports and occupational medicine will be able at least to protect players partially from such long-term damage. This is yet another reason why the campaign against true doping must be actively pursued.”

So what’s it to be Rangers: purveyors of pork pies or doping cheats?

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