Even as Roma's Czech coach Zdenek Zeman yesterday was giving evidence to a Turin-based magistrate regarding his allegations about widespread "doping" practises within Italian soccer, his unexpected cry of alarm continued to provoke bitter divisions.
For some, the controversial Zeman is merely some form of intellectual terrorist engaged in a prolonged bout of malicious, pre-season idle gossip that will certainly not help at least one of his forthcoming Serie A opponents, namely reigning champions Juventus. For others, Zeman has touched a serious nerve, highlighting potentially widespread malpractices.
A cool customer and a coach who has worked in Italian soccer for 17 years with clubs such as Foggia, Lazio and Roma, 51-year-old Zeman's decision to point the finger at alleged "pharmaceutical abuse" in Italian soccer has been taken seriously, prompting expressions of solidarity not only from coaching colleagues such as Gigi Simoni of Inter Milan and Carlo Mazzone of Bologna but also from Deputy Prime Minister and Sports Minister, Walter Veltroni. Zeman's comments have, however, also prompted the threat of libel litigation from Juventus FC.
In an interview in the current edition of Italian weekly L'Espresso, Zeman was asked if it was true that he had in the past been surprised by the muscular explosion of certain Juventus players: "My amazement starts with Gianluca Vialli and goes all the way to Alessandro Del Piero," replied Zeman.
Until his observations this week, however, no one had publicly suggested that the players' improvement was owed to anything other than long, hard workouts in the club gym. Both players, too, have emphatically denied malpractice.
Zeman went on to warn against pharmaceutical companies which offer a variety of "magic pills", tempting players with the promise of greatly enhanced performances by the systematic use of products better suited to the sick or injured. In layman's terms, Zeman appears to be saying that, while there is no evidence that Italian footballers systematically use illegal products such as amphetamines, cortisone-related drugs, anabolic steroids or even EPO (the drug at the centre of the Tour de France doping scandal), many of them use multi-vitamin cocktails, so-called "restoratives". Although legal, these restoratives may prove dangerous for the player's long-term health while, in the short-term, it is at least questionable if constitute fair sporting practise.
"The problem is that players are motivated by short term considerations and do not worry much about their health," Zeman told L'Espresso.
Earlier this week, almost at the same time as Zeman was appearing before the anti-doping panel of CONI, the overall authority for all Italian sport, Juventus chose to reply. At a news conference in Turin, Ricardo Agricola, the club's chief medical officer, denied that his players took performance enhancing drugs, but admitted openly that they used legal "restoratives" to recoup energy, adding: "Confusion breeds ignorance . . . restoratives, that is to say amino acids, creatine, vitamins, mineral salts and water, are legal and, indeed, it would be a crime not to use them because the body needs to regain equilibrium after heavy exercise."
Later the same day, club President Vittorio Chiusano confirmed that Juventus would be suing Zeman for what he described as an "underhand and ambiguous form of defamation which cannot be tolerated." A spokesman for Del Piero spoke of the "unacceptable damage" to his reputation, while Vialli branded Zeman a "terrorist".
While Zeman girds up his loins for impending legal battles, he received some timely support from CONI's doctor, Sandro Donati, who told reporters after he, too, had had a session yesterday with CONI's anti-doping panel: "Zeman is right. If you're healthy, you do not need pharmaceutical products . . . Zeman is right to be amazed by dramatic improvements in performance since that means that substances have been taken . . . there are some very disturbing figures around who try out cocktails on athletes."
