Red face for Dutch defender Stam as sports body cries foul over drugs

Offloaded by Manchester United and part of Holland's failure to qualify for the World Cup finals, Jaap Stam's annus horibilis took another turn for the worse yesterday when he was banned for drug use.

The 29-year-old Lazio defender is the second player from the Roman club to test positive for the anabolic steroid Nandrolone this year, and has been suspended with immediate effect. He also joins a growing list of Dutch internationals banned for traces of the performance-enhancing drug, with Edgar Davids of Juventus and Barcelona's Frank de Boer preceding him.

Davids missed the World Cup qualifier in Dublin last September, in which an underperforming Dutch team lost 1-0. Stam played in that game, but his positive drugs test dates from an Italian Serie A match between Lazio and Atalanta on October 13th.

Lazio president Sergio Cragnotti declared "shock" at news of the ban. But club doctor Andrea Campi expressed incredulity: "Our players, especially the Dutchman, all use only mineral salts and medicines totally certified by the rules of the Olympic Committee." He also claimed Lazio tested their players on October 17th, and all, Stam included, were found to be clean.

In the wake of the suspension of Davids, fellow Holland international Bert Konterman blamed Dutch farmers for the debacle, suggesting they injected cattle with Nandrolone. But contaminated supplements have also been fingered and UEFA, European soccer's governing body, slashed de Boer's ban because of suspicions about how his positive test arose. Stam, sold unceremoniously in August by Manchester United, has fallen foul of strict new rules by the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) which is responsible for monitoring drugs in Italian sport. Since October 21st, a player may be banned after a first test. Davids, de Boer, and Fernando Couto of Lazio and Portugal, were all suspended after a second. By coincidence, Couto missed Portugal's World Cup qualifier in Dublin in June because of his ban.

United manager Sir Alex Ferguson denied that Stam's sale had anything to do with the latter's autobiography, which made controversial claims about Ferguson. The manager's insistence that the decision was made on football considerations alone has been undermined by subsequent events, with United failing to plug a leaky defence since Stam's departure.