Graham Cummins: League of Ireland needs more awareness of drug perils

More education on risks, as well as increased testing, is required.

Fri, 21 Oct, 2022 - 06:08

The recent postponement of the boxing bout between Conor Benn and Chris Eubank Jr. because of Benn's failed drug test had me wondering if enough is being done in the League of Ireland to prevent players from taking an illegal substance.

In a society where the intake of illegal substances appears to be increasing, players need to be educated more on what they should and shouldn’t be putting in their bodies.

Thinking back to my playing days in Ireland, it was rare that we received any education or warning about what was prohibited in sport. It seemed the onus was on the player to do their own research on what they were and weren’t allowed to take.

Clubs and the PFAI should be creating more awareness of where players can find information on what is prohibited and what is not. As senseless as it sounds, players can be lazy when it comes to researching just what they are allowed to take to take to try and improve their performance.

I don’t remember anyone in our league ever having a talk with the players about performance-enhancing products and where players can research the information they need to find if a substance is banned.

Players are naive. If they are given a supplement, for example a protein shake, they aren’t going to question if there is something in the drink that could be prohibited. They place a lot of trust in the people giving them the supplements but those people aren’t always experts.

During my time in the UK, there were regular meetings to educate players on what was expected of them. Constant communication was important because the list of substances that were banned regularly changed. What was okay to take one season could possibly be illegal the next. We were all given the appropriate location/website/contact details to find the information we needed if we ever had any doubts about a product.

I was aware that it was my responsibility to investigate every supplement I took even if it was provided by the club. If the club gave me a supplement, like a protein shake, and a substance was banned in it, the club would not face any consequences, only me. I was also educated to be cautious about buying supplements from certain companies simply because they may have been manufactured in the same location as another banned product, risking contamination of the legal supplement.

There is a lack of drug testing in the League of Ireland. I played in the league for eight seasons, and from memory, the teams I have been involved in have only been tested four times, two of those for the FAI Cup final.

Drug testing is as much a cup final tradition as the big match suits. It actually becomes a topic of conversation during the build-up as to which two players will be unfortunate enough to be selected. It is the worst time to be tested because the process might take hours and you miss the initial celebrations.

I am aware that tests take place during the season too but there are too few. Of course, the league is limited by the lack of finance compared to in the UK.

There is also a ‘whereabouts’ system in place for drug testing in England whereby players have to make themselves available to be tested even if they are missing from a training session or matchday squad. If a player is not at the facility where training or a match is taking place for whatever reason, then they have to let the drug testing organisation know where they will be at a certain time so that they can be tested. I was actually tested in my home at 7am. This is not a system that has been introduced in our league.

I just fear that if we don’t introduce stricter testing that some players could take advantage. We assume players will not risk taking illegal substances for fear of the consequences they could face. But players have been banned in the past and we have seen so many athletes across a variety of sports willing to take that chance.