trg wrote:
Real and Barca are named, but not the names of actual players for those
teams. I also think that if someone like Zizou, Ronaldihno, Ronaldo, Deco,
or Becks were mentioned by name anywhere, that information would have gotten
out. L'Equipe has seen how doping scandals in a sport as secondary as
cycling (even the tour) can sell papers. Imagine what a doping scandal at
the top of football would do for circulation. They and all other papers, not
just sports rags, would kill to be able to print the headline "Zidane
implicated in Puerto".

I remember last year on the BBC Football programme. They were talking
about the situation in Italy & the UK with bungs, and match fixing
(maybe somebody else will remember who the French ex Arsenal player was)
but when he began to mention drugs as well they immediately shut him
up... Why?
Also rumours abounded last summer of one of the photos at Fuentes place
having been Zizou.
Teams like Man U, Chelsea, Juve, Real, Barca etc are rich enough to make
any newspaper think twice before risking their future. Even Armstrong
whose wealth is puny compared to these teams managed to take on the Times...
I don't know the answers, but I do trust the word on the street a little
more than the Teams' PR...