[Closed] Doctor claims to have doped 150 sports stars

Spanish footballers surely?

Quick scan shows soccerists being the main story. Arsenal, Chelsea, Leicester and Birmingham.

Will be more I assume judging by this;
[img] [/img]

Probably all of the above.
Hope not on the cyclists (JTL?)

Or he's an attention seeker, either way he's in trouble.

Really?
People try and cheat to earn a living. Well I never...

Is that all?

Not really surprising that elite sportstars are on the gear.

My money is on football and rugby players, sad state of affairs but i fear we have only scratched the surface over the past few years of doping exposures

I reckon darts players.

Hmmm, the Sunday Times running an article about cheating... who's it owned by again?

Could we give him the phone number for Aston Villa please? There's still time, arithmetically.

I think we can safely rule out any Villa players. No way they are taking performance enhancing drugs.

Hmmm, the Sunday Times running an article about cheating... who's it owned by again?

The company that employs [url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Walsh_(journalist) ]The Little Troll[/url]

Put your chips down. The Sunday Times has excellent journalists, with a long history of breaking important stories. OK, so this one may be guff, but the paper has a strong record, regardless of ownership, that deserves a little respect.

"It was time to accept that drugs were in sport, he argued, and that athletes should be free to take anything they liked under the supervision of medical specialists".

Well that's OK then. Just so long as the "medical specialists" get their cut.

British cyclist who's done the TdF and doesn't ride for Sky due to Murdoch connection. Millar? Alex Dowsett? Adam or Simon Yates? Dan Martin (races for Ireland but is Brummy) I can't think of too many more in recent years.

There are other UK riders, but names will just tarnish the innocent

There's a bloke who works with lots of boxers and athletes who admitted he has developed several undetectable PED's and nobody batted an eyelid, Memo Heredia. no surprise its happening in other sports.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Well give us the names of all 150 or I'm not interested. 🙄

There's a guy works down the chipshop claims he's Elvis

Why on Earth would you go to a third party in this day and age to partake in such blatant Tom Foolery? I mean WHY..... FFS, Do these people want to get caught? Is it part of their genetic make up? I've always found that when I do something REALLY stupid the less other people know about it the better, nowadays people only seem willing to take part in stupid activitys if there is a good chance of getting caught.

Maybe that's why they do it? If it's not I wonder if I could get a Job as an advisor to Really Stupid people to get them to do proper bone stuff,

WHat Flashy says The times, despite its scumbag owner, is still a fine and esteemed publication with a decent record of breaking stories, especially sports related drugs ones.

It has to be listened to when it speaks

Also agree all we want is the list of names

And due to the way it will work names will have to wait until they publish a day someone with an account copies the text out... Still got a business to run there

Its amazing how this will shock people that Football and Rugby have a doping problem!

In other news, certain Welsh man did do quite well in the tour last year didn't he... how did he place the year before remind me?

Sounds like a good piece of investigative journalism, following contact from a whistleblower.
Here's the bit on cycling:

[i]It was not just football. Cycling is widely believed to have cleaned up its tarnished image especially in Britain - but Bonar’s comments suggested otherwise. He admitted to seeing “quite a few cyclists”, especially for treatment with EPO.[/i]

[i]He said he had treated Tour de France cyclists from Britain and abroad with great results. “They just lead the pack,” he said. “One guy who did the Tour de France — I mean it was just incredible . . . especially when you are going uphill or you need more oxygen to get to your muscles. It’s amazing.”[/i]
[i]
Over dinner, Bonar began reeling off the combinations of drugs and supplements he used on his cyclists. He said he gave them steroids for “bulk” and “strength” but also kept them lightweight with supplements such as thyroid hormone and another drug called Victoza. “It’s a diabetic drug that strips off the fat . . . a lot of my clients, they want to cut,” he said. Despite Bonar’s claims, there is no independent evidence that Bonar treated the sportsmen. [/i]

Based on pretty much nothing I'm going with the doctor being a fantasist nut job.

Exhibit A;
https://twitter.com/ZenGrifter

Exhibit B;
http://www.****/news/article-3354179/Harley-Street-doctor-kept-patient-dark-terminal-cancer.html

Unless they have some concrete evidence this is going to go absolutely nowhere.

Again.

He's hardly the most credible of witnesses.

It's on Radio5 just now. Normal platitudes being trotted out about why they mustn't do anything...anything at all.

no evidence blah blah, no jurisdiction blah blah, just rumours blah blah, very strict regulation in place now blah blah,

the people "running" anti doping and the various sports authorities are bending over backwards to make sure the money never dries up. It's their [b]only[/b] concern.

Not read the article but sounds like he's been reported to UKAD a few times but they've not been able to pursue it as he's outside their jurisdiction. I'd be cautious about rubbishing witnesses, usually how a cover up starts.

This from UKAD

UKAD recommended the sportsman gather more information and pass it on to the GMC, the doctors' regulator, "if appropriate".

Or, "we won't bother doing our job properly."

When the players are worth so much money why would the football club let them go to someone like this (if the club are aware)

Or if the players are doing this off their own backs then why not use a more trusted doctor?

I think it's probably more a little man saying big things.

I think it does go on but with far more professionalism. It has to when there is so much money involved.

What did they say about Lance Armstrong? If it's too good to be true?

There have been a few unusual results in the premier league this year!

I'm still amazed anyone thinks top athletes aren't on gear...

I think it would be easier if we just had a witch hunt to find the ones not doping and throw them out.

[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35953447 ]denial denial denial[/url]

Doping needs to be a criminal offence. For the athlete, for the doctor and for the middle men/women with jail time in the sentencing policy. Only then will the risks outweigh the gains

No they won't. Many sports people are happy to take performing enhancing drugs even though they can lead to Premature injury, illness an death. For many, the chance of fame and money will still be too strong a lure. Think about it, most start when quite young and won't even heed advice on smoking, drinking and dangerous driving.

,I'm not naive about doping. Hated Lance from the Simeoni affair onwards. But this Dr seems a self-serving narcissistic bull shitter and I'd like to see some documentation before fetching my pitchfork.

I remember a spate of stories like this over the past 15 years, this is just the first one google found for "placenta treatment".

Anyway I reckon chiny.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8364226.stm

It doesn't surprise me one bit - there's that much money in the game with a lot of it bent it & that much money to cheat, sorry earn, you'd have to be the World's biggest optimist to think that the EPL is clean.

Have a look round & see what other big buck sports there are & how many of them haven't had some kind of PED issue in the past!

I don't think that money is the primary motivation in most cases.

I don't think that money is the primary motivation in most cases.

What do you think it is then?...

big_n_daft

Doping needs to be a criminal offence. For the athlete, for the doctor and for the middle men/women with jail time in the sentencing policy. Only then will the risks outweigh the gains

It's cheating at sport. Get some perspective. Big boys and girls making the choice to gamble with their health/reputation for potentially massive financial gain, not hurting anyone else (with the exception of combat sports like boxing and MMA where roids may well give you an edge to severely damage someone).

It's cheating at sport. Get some perspective.

Something that some people dedicate their lives to and also make a living from. Perspective?

& can potentially cheat & lie their way to many millions a la Armstrong?

However you dress it up it's immoral & can potentially benefit the individual huge success & fame...

So, yeah, criminal offence? I think so too.

not hurting anyone else

it's fraud, both sporting and financial. The numbers are staggering in terms of the difference in earning for getting gold or not

If you don't think it hurts people you need to think about the issues a lot harder and do some background reading other than Lance biographies

The Italians and others have criminalised it

What do you think it is then?

Winning and/or not loosing, not been left behind, not succeeding as everyone expects you to, fear of being dropped from the team, the squad your life.

Very few cheats really make a lot of money out of it, for the few that do succeed the money comes later.

Very few cheats really make a lot of money out of it, for the few that do succeed that comes later.

I th k you're being a bit naive.

For one, do you know how much a course of PEDs cost? Not. Cheap. Is the answer.

I'll grant you that success can definitely be appealing as is the acknowledgement of your peers.....but.....with that success comes much money....& don't try to tell me there isn't more than a few who've had their head turned by the thought of making a stack of cash..

not hurting anyone else (with the exception of combat sports like boxing and MMA where roids may well give you an edge to severely damage someone).

I think you're being a bit naive, loads of squad members from cycling teams in the Armstrong era will have left the sport with barely any more than they entered it with, but they will have all been on the juice just for a shot at a supporting role on the tour team.

There will have been years when virtually the whole entry for the 100m at the Olympics will have been juiced, but nobody remembers those knocked out in the eliminating rounds. They just go home to their full time jobs financing their own trips to races hoping they might make a breakthrough.

Armstrong and the EPL players are the exceptions, they are the top of the pyramid, but there is a lot of doping going on all the way down to the base.

I think you're being a bit naive, loads of squad members from cycling teams in the Armstrong era will have left the sport with barely any more than they entered it with, but they will have all been on the juice just for a shot at a supporting role on the tour team.

I don't for one second believe that their sole motivation was just to be on the team.

So, we'll just have to agree to disagree.

Ok?

captainsasquatch

Aaah! So you understand that hurt is only a physical issue. I see your problem.

So what about creatine? BCAA's ecdysterone? protein powder? Aren't they performance enhancing?

As for legality, if you're going to overhaul the criminal justice system to make besmirching soccer a crime that incurs jail time I'd rather they first impose stiffer sentences for rapists, child molesters, people who kill cyclists while not looking at the road...things like that first, because jail won't be a deterent anyway.

If Wayne Rooney pissed hot tommorow, got exposed as the soccer's biggest drug cheat and went to jail for a year, even five years he'd come out having served his time and he'd still be worth £130million. Think he wouldn't do it? Of course he would. Anyone would.

Ultra competitive people will do anything to win, especially when millions of pounds are involved.

doping is like corruption, it's a cancer in sport. Accepting it isn't the answer.

even five years he'd come out having served his time and he'd still be worth £130million. Think he wouldn't do it? Of course he would. Anyone would

proceeds of crime act (or whatever it's called) could go for the money

now he's done time and lost most of his cash or would have to move to a less desirable country to spend any he could hide

also you prosecute the chain of people involved, as soon as you start removing them from sport the pyramid of lies starts to collapse

I know it was only hypothetical, but there is no way Wayne Rooney has taken anything performance enhancing! I wish he would get caught though as at least it would rule him of the squad for the summer.

proceeds of crime act (or whatever it's called) could go for the money

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/03/cyclist-at-centre-of-drug-cheat-claims-against-150-sport-stars/

At least the stance from UKAD is better than we'd have expected in the pre festina days (do nothing) and the immediate post festina days (bust anyone who sticks their head above the parapet, and hope they don't sue). At least they now have a legal framework, and professional standards that can be reviewed and changed if need be. It's one of the many reasons it took so long to bring Lance down, lack of actual evidence, the disappearance of evidence didn't help, but that's another issue.

TBH, if UKAD had gone in all guns blazing trying to bust this Bonar monkey, with no evidence, a half way decent lawyer could probably have bankrupted them, or at least made a serious dent in the cash flow situation, they don't have that big a budget. (7 or 8 million quid IIRC) And if he is doping premier league players, it only needs one of them, or their team, or the teams money man, to bankroll his defence. Then UKAD are in trouble, and won't have budget to do anything else.

And FWIW, doping is relatively cheap.
If you want to run a high risk (getting caught, dying, making yourself ill) and high gain program (pump yourself pull of gear until you've got veins like bits of rope and blood like tar). The drugs are freely available and would only cost three or four hundred quid a month. More than likely less than that.

If you want a good program, with precisely timed doses, minimal risk of dying or getting caught, latest (undetectable) drugs and so on, that will cost you. Serious amounts of cash. Add another couple of zeros type thing. Premier league money.

I lost my job in the immediate aftermath of Festina, one of the guys vaguely involved with the team I was riding for was accused of being a low level player in the whole thing. The plug got pulled and 40 people were out of work.

Turns out they had the wrong guy.

Nice.

Ha ha, the footy-fan deniers are out in force - they have the means, the incentive and the FA / club systems that 'protects' them from the normal scrutiny that most other sports. Simply popping a pill that means they can run the legs of the opposition for the last 15 minutes and score does no harm? Trouble is much of the media have to much of an interest via TV rights to want to upset the status quo to keep the gravy-train running.

Surely it's Viagra he's dealing in with a name like 'Bonar'

;o)

I'll get my coat.

Drugs in a major national sport...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essendon_Football_Club_supplements_controversy
Also a great way to not handle a major investigation in the end of the day. If ever there was a reason for parliamentary select comittee's it's where the jurisdictions of law don't line up. If the UKAD can't (by remit/powers) the police can't and the GMC can't then go above the lot of them.

As for the legalities how does artificially enhancing your CV go, is it a criminal offence as in reality in a lot of cases it's a similar thing. Making yourself look better to attract a better remuneration or get a better job.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/03/cyclist-at-centre-of-drug-cheat-claims-against-150-sport-stars/
/p>

Anyone know the cheaty amateur cyclist?

This quote from the telegraph article amused me...

In a statement, the clinic said: "We have checked our records thoroughly during the period Dr Bonar worked at Omniya and apart from the undercover athlete the Sunday Times used in its investigation, we can find absolutely no trace of a single high-profile sportsman or woman who has been treated or been seen at the clinic by Dr Bonar.”

The one bad egg story 😆

Anyone know the cheaty amateur cyclist?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/03/cyclist-at-centre-of-drug-cheat-claims-against-150-sport-stars/

Turns out this Mark Bonar isn't even a licenced doctor.....

Dan Stevens

Sorry, didn't click the link. But anyway, several friends of mine know him/have raced with him. Ditto the last (?) one to get busted, Andy Hastings. Who is also a "friend" of mine.

It's difficult to avoid if you race/have raced enough.

I would suspect a few on here know him as well. He is a mountain biker as well.

So, yeah, criminal offence? I think so too.

It's an offence in France which is how they can get the police involved, who can then execute various powers associated with investigating criminal offences such as search and seizure. Just ask David Millar.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/34653817

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/athletics/11779464/Government-urged-to-make-doping-a-criminal-offence-after-new-scandal-engulfs-athletics.html

It would be good to see it made a criminal offence here. It seemed to have a significant effect on French sports people when it was made a criminal offence there.

Would we see people persecuted for sticky bottle?

It's already a fineable offence. No need to pick on them as well.

And wasn't it a civil offense in France before they upgraded it to criminal?
Some changes in the way it can be investigated and the size and type of penalties.

How can he only have got 21 months ban?
A welsh amateur rugby player recently got 4 years, his mate got two years just for having cocaine in his system!

When he got caught, it was a 2 year ban for first offence. It's changed to a 4 year ban since then.

Breaking news - he has been supplying Ranieiri with laughing gas for months now 😉

When he got caught, it was a 2 year ban for first offence. It's changed to a 4 year ban since then.

Selling illegal, performance enhancing drugs to a Premier League footballer would be no harder than selling them any other get rich quick scheme - dodgy timeshare/property developments, bonds etc. They love them!

I wonder when he started doping? 😀

He hardly seems apologetic!

well that facebook post is from about 1 month before he got busted...

EDIT

or perhaps he had already been busted, and it was just a month before he was actually banned?

from the telegraph:

banned for failing to provide a sample for an out-of-competition test in January 2014.

Well, whenever it was he seemed fairly intent on justifying doping.....read into it what you will..

Jeez, Dan is a complete w**ker!