I’m not usually the biggest football fan but tonight I cheered on Ireland and to see them cheated like that really annoyed me.
Cheating, as we all know, is a fact of sport these days. It has always has been a part of sport. They were at it in the very first Tour De France back in 1903 and nothing has changed in 2009. It’s not just cycling either. The East Germans in the 70’s and 80’s, swimmers and track athletes are all at it up to the present day. I could write a very long list of shamed sports and cheats.
The IOC yesterday announced sanctions against five athletes who participated in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing for anti-doping violations, Bahrain’s Olympic 1,500 metres champion Rashid Ramzi has been stripped of his gold medal for doping. He was joined today in the hall of shame by another dirty athlete – Italy’s cycling road race silver medallist Davide Rebellin.
Now we can’t tarnish Thierry Henry with the same brush as those boys for what he did, or can we?. They cheated, he cheated. He possibly cost the FAI millions in lost revenue after not qualifying for the 2010 World Cup and broke Irish hearts. It’s an issue that needs quite a bit more debate. What repercussions will there be for Henry? None? probably so. Yes Ramzi and Rabellin will suffer two year bans from competition, but in my opinion this does not go far enough.
A positive test should be a life ban. You cheat and fail a drugs test, you’re out. No second chances. This year we saw ex-dopers Alexander Vinokourov and Floyd Landis return to cycling. Cycling has a knack of welcoming back its cheats. Richard Virenque, David Miller and Marco Pantani are all good examples of this. I’ll say no more before I get myself in trouble.
As for the French fella Henry, best of luck in the World Cup buddy.
