There's no evidence because the world of football doesn't want it to be found.
Don't you find it unusual that many other major sports (tennis, cycling, athletics, baseball) have had high profile PED scandals, and that football doesn't? Why do you think that is? Is the most popular sport in the world, and one of the most lucrative, magically free of doping?
If you read the reddit thread I posted above, there's links where footballers of previous eras admitted to being given "vitamins" or whatever. Do we simply choose to believe that this simply doesn't happen anymore? The answer is obvious to me, the reality is that no one likes to face this question. I think there's a MASSIVE scandal on the horizon, on the scale of the Sepp Blatter/Qatar World Cup abuses or bigger.
I think that the major concentration of PED issues is in sports that are focused on individual performances, eg athletics, cycling, baseball. The effects of PEDs (unless it's a team wide programme) have much less impact in team sports. It's also much, much harder to keep secret. People and players with axes to grind and all that.
That's not to say there isn't drug taking going on; but to imply that's the reason for Leicester's success this season is indeed controversial, and as far as I can see, without merit.
Chelsea have had a startling decline from champions last year to mid table fodder, this year. Does that mean they've stopped doping?
Regarding teams: a team is composed of individuals, who will obviously benefit from things like speedy muscle fatigue recovery and being able to train harder for longer periods of time. I don't buy that argument. Also, Lance Armstrong was the ringleader of getting his team of cyclists to take EPO. So the team argument doesn't have merit.
> to imply that's the reason for Leicester's success this season is indeed controversial, and as far as I can see, without merit.
There's indeed no evidence, but you have to ask yourself: do I want to believe that Vardy burst onto the scene at 29, or is there the slight possibility that something else is going on?
Wenger has said in the past: "sport was “full of legends who are in fact cheats” as he called on Uefa to improve its drug testing programme. "Honestly, I don’t think we do enough [on doping tests],” he said. “It is very difficult for me to believe that you have 740 players at the World Cup and you come out with zero problems. Mathematically, that happens every time."[1]
It's publicly known that Barcelona paid for Messi's treatment of a growth hormone disorder with human growth hormone[2]. Can you honestly say you would be surprised if they also use HGH to help their players recovery from injury? They were implicated in the Operation Puerto case, but there was deliberately no further investigation in that case[3].
I agree that there probably is. But there's a clear legal and ethical difference between saying "the whole sport is corrupt" and "Bob who plays for Foobar FC takes drugs". Without evidence, it's libel and for good reason.
If you read my last paragraph, I'm not say that Leicester or anyone is is definitely doping. I'm saying that if a scandal breaks, I wouldn't be one bit surprised, because we don't seem to care about asking tough questions, actually testing footballers properly compared to other sports, or wondering why Ryan Giggs has pace at 40 years old (I say this as a Manchester United fan).
There's tons of potential evidence to start looking at if the football world decides so.[1]
Don't you find it unusual that many other major sports (tennis, cycling, athletics, baseball) have had high profile PED scandals, and that football doesn't? Why do you think that is? Is the most popular sport in the world, and one of the most lucrative, magically free of doping?
If you read the reddit thread I posted above, there's links where footballers of previous eras admitted to being given "vitamins" or whatever. Do we simply choose to believe that this simply doesn't happen anymore? The answer is obvious to me, the reality is that no one likes to face this question. I think there's a MASSIVE scandal on the horizon, on the scale of the Sepp Blatter/Qatar World Cup abuses or bigger.