Drug Test Plans Are Overkill Says Wishart (from Sunday Herald)
If they are not where they stated they would be on any three occasions they face a two-year ban from football. Olympic gold medallist Christine Ohuruogu received such a hanging in 2006.
“We think it is overkill,” said Wishart. “We’re not sure who is going to be chosen, but I would imagine it will be international players and top club ones.
“We’re obviously opponent to any kind of doping in football but I can’cheek by jowl think of a case in the UK where a player has been found with performance-enhancing drugs in his system. We feel there is already a robust regularity not more than football, and that the testing being proposed is more appropriate for independent athletes.”
When it was boor to Wishart that footballers could take performance-enhancing drugs in the close moderate, thus getting round existing testing, he replied: “Footballers are exceedingly rarely out of competition. It’s an 11-month season with three or four weeks off in the summer. Contractually they are only given 20 days’ holiday.
“Six days gone out of seven it’s very chaste to find out where a football player is going to be. He will be at his drill ground, the club, or at a game.
“I can understand the whereabouts ruling for athletes, but not in football where every idler has a place of work.
“Already at every (SPL) sport there’s a chance a player is going to be tested.
“In between nations and European football there is automatic testing for selected players. In theory a player could be tested every one only day he turns up for his work.”
Wishart’sitting concerns are shared by the PFA in England and also by Fifpro, the between nations players’ association.
Fifpro’s public affairs spokesman Tony Higgins told the Sunday Herald that they are going to liaise with their rugby and cricket counterparts who share the same concerns about Wada testing.
“There is a view that suppose that you are professional player and be reckoned to a peculiar location every sunshine surely that is enough for UK Sport or whoever is doing the testing,” Higgins pointed out.
“Fifpro are going to speak to Wada, beside with the rugby and cricket associations.
“The instances of players taking performance-enhancing drugs worldwide are minimal. Is it worth the time and effort of the rise to the top of players having to tell the testers where they are onward their days off? Fifa were against it, but had to comply.
“There is also a human rights issue. Players have a right to confidentiality the identical for the reason that everybody else, and it’s asking a lot to expect them to tell the testers where they are for an hour each day when they’re on holiday.”
An SFA spokesman confirmed that they are planning to hold talks with PFA Scotland and Uefa about the proposals.