Teenage footballer at a Premier League club banned for anti-doping breach

[aggi]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56186820
Lots of talk of doping in football and how weak the testing regime is compared to other sports. When you get 16 year olds doing it you have to wonder what has driven that and whether there was any "influence" from the club.

[GodIsADeeJay81]

Club possibly not, but the parents knew about it existence of it according to the article so maybe they were putting the pressure on.

[Chester Perry]

posted this yesterday on the MMT thread

we all know how difficult it is for youngsters pursuing their dream of a career in football - it can be seen clear enough here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HEq8YM ... e=emb_logo

which is why some, with the support/encouragement of their parents will take whatever means they can to gain an advantage. The UK Antidoping authority have just issued a ruling banning for 9 months a 16 year old who was found taking a growth hormone as a 15 year old with his parents complicit in his taking of it.

https://www.ukad.org.uk/news/young-foot ... ine-months

[bf2k]

It's sad the amount of pressure put on these young lads that they feel they need to do something like this. I can only put it down to the pressure due to the money at the top end of the game. I've seen it in youth football for years; Parents pushing the kids because they know the rewards if they turn professional, clubs push push push (bull them up) and then discard the kids without support.

The obscene amounts of money now being paid to bang average players has to be regulated.

I've not been at the professional club level for a good number of years or every been involved that high up the year groups but do they do any educational work with these young players?

[bfcmik]

The obscene amounts of money now being paid to bang average players has to be regulated.

The amount of money now been paid to 16 year olds in the top academies is pretty frightening. Several years ago I worked with the mother of one 16 year old lad in the Aston Villa academy who was telling me that her son was getting £500 per week after deductions, full board and lodging, tuition and the club had arranged a paid boot sponsorship and another paid deal (which I can't remember) - at SIXTEEN. And he moaned because another lad with a different boot sponsorship had nicer boots than he did!

Her son did get into a few 1st team squads at Villa and even made his debut for them before moving to another Championship side.

[bfccrazy]

The amount of money now been paid to 16 year olds in the top academies is pretty frightening. Several years ago I worked with the mother of one 16 year old lad in the Aston Villa academy who was telling me that her son was getting £500 per week after deductions, full board and lodging, tuition and the club had arranged a paid boot sponsorship and another paid deal (which I can't remember) - at SIXTEEN. And he moaned because another lad with a different boot sponsorship had nicer boots than he did!

Her son did get into a few 1st team squads at Villa and even made his debut for them before moving to another Championship side.

Was speaking to a bloke whose son is at Burnley and we have kids (well at least one I know of for sure) who has been on around that money at a similar age. Also has a “boot deal” along with his parents getting a healthy travel allowance for him.

[bf2k]

The amount of money now been paid to 16 year olds in the top academies is pretty frightening. Several years ago I worked with the mother of one 16 year old lad in the Aston Villa academy who was telling me that her son was getting £500 per week after deductions, full board and lodging, tuition and the club had arranged a paid boot sponsorship and another paid deal (which I can't remember) - at SIXTEEN. And he moaned because another lad with a different boot sponsorship had nicer boots than he did!

Her son did get into a few 1st team squads at Villa and even made his debut for them before moving to another Championship side.

That's crazy money at 16 and I bet no financial advise or regulation is in place! Then we wonder why footballers act like fools and spoilt brats. I think it's fair to say a lot of players have come from disadvantaged backgrounds so stick £2k a month in their back pocket with no education and you wonder why they go loopy!

[Quickenthetempo]

Even 10 years ago it was obscene.

I used to work with a footballers brother, who told stories of all the young lads thinking they had made it, buying rolexes and flash cars etc.. Then bang released at the end of the season with no club lined up.

[Gordaleman]

The lack of enforcement in football is just plain stupid. As long as the so called doping authorities continue with their laissez-faire attitude towards testing, players will do the same as the rest of society, knowing they are very unlikely to be caught out.

How crazy is it that the doping agencies have to give about a weeks notice that they are visiting a club to test certain individuals? That gives them time to abstain, and clear their system, or be absent when the testers arrive.

Crazy.

[Dyched]

What’s alternative.

So we stop young lads getting paid big money. What then? It won’t mean more players come through the youth teams. Would more sacrifice their youth to progress? Doubt it. Those that have the mindset to want to become professional footballers will if they have £100, £1,000 or £10,000 a week.

[ŽižkovClaret]

What’s alternative.

So we stop young lads getting paid big money. What then? It won’t mean more players come through the youth teams. Would more sacrifice their youth to progress? Doubt it. Those that have the mindset to want to become professional footballers will if they have £100, £1,000 or £10,000 a week.

Id make a convention where 50% of whatever is earned until 21 is placed in trust, unless they are without a club for 3 months, at which point its released