German soccer was thrown into turmoil after a doping commission said the use of banned substances in the sport, as well as in cycling in the 1970s and 1980s, was more than just individual athletes stepping over the line.
For decades the country sought to investigate East Germany’s systematic doping before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, but there were indications doping was also present in West Germany.
Those suggestions have now, in part, been substantiated, the evaluation commission on Freiburg University’s doping past said, with evidence pointing to cycling and soccer.
The 60-page report itself has not been published yet, but Monday’s two-page statement released by one of the commission members, and confirmed by the commission, was enough to cause a furor.
Bundesliga club VfB Stuttgart, who won the league in 1983-1984, and SC Freiburg, in the second division at the time of the claims, said they had yet to see the report which goes back decades, making cross-referencing information difficult.
The German Cycling Federation (BDR) was reserved in its reaction on Tuesday.
“For the last 10 years, the German Cycling Federation has positioned itself clearly in the fight against doping, and through prevention and information contribute to a new generation that sees manipulation for what it is. Cheating,” BDR general secretary Martin Wolf said.
Germany’s sacred cow — the Bundesliga — has never seen such allegations, with only a handful of positive doping tests in the past several decades.
All of those were quickly dismissed as the fault of individuals rather than a network of organized doping, keeping the league’s drugs-free image intact, but it must now face the most serious allegations yet.
The German Football Association (DFB) said that although it had not been informed of the case, it wanted full transparency.
“There are grave allegations here that of course need to be completely and fully cleared up,” DFB vice president Rainer Koch said on the DFB Web site. “One has to admit that the anti-doping fight in those years was not being conducted seriously and at the DFB it was not dealt with as meticulously as one would have wished. Today, German football is very consistent and strict in its fight against doping. Especially in the last 20 years a lot has changed and a lot has been done.”
At the heart of the issue is former Freiburg University sports trauma unit chief Armin Kluemper, who allegedly provided athletes with anabolic steroids.
Evaluation commission member Fritz Soergel said that, especially for soccer, it is time to confront the allegations.
“The DFB has been confronted with this since yesterday,” Soergel told ZDF television. “After these revelations... and because football is the people’s sport, the most popular sport, no stone should be left unturned.”
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