As the sporting world digested the news that Russia had been accused of running a state-sponsored doping programme, Arsene Wenger has expressed his fears that football may have a similar problem.
A World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) commision report made the accusations about Russia with its chairman, Dick Pound, claiming that “Russia is not the only country and athletics is not the only sport with a doping problem.”
In an interview with L’Equipe, Wenger discussed the matter of doping in football.
“I try to be faithful to the values that I believe to be important in life and to pass them on to others. In 30 years as a manager, I’ve never had my players injected to make them better. I never gave them any product that would help enhance their performance. I’m proud of that. I’ve played against many teams that weren’t in that frame of mind.”
“For me, the beauty of sport is that everyone wants to win, but there will only be one winner. We have reached an era in which we glorify the winner, without looking at the means or the method. And, 10 years later we realise the guy was a cheat. And during that time, the one that came second suffered. He didn’t get recognition. And, with all that’s been said about them, they can be very unhappy.”
Wenger’s comments are clearly very concerning and follow similar claims by the Arsenal manager seen in the The Telegraph. Made over two years ago, Wenger suggested that the sport was “full of legends who are in fact cheats”.
