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Former footballer Dino Baggio, who played with Italy in the 1994 World Cup final, has acknowledged in an interview that doping was used in football in the 1990s. “Doping has always been there in my time,” he told Italian channel TV7 on Tuesday.
The ruling caused quite a stir and a day later Baggio retraced his steps. He had used the word doping, but meant supplements, he told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“My apologies to everyone,” said the 60-time international. “The doctors couldn’t give us a banned substance because we were checked every three or four days.”
Death Vialli and Mihaljovic
Baggio said in the earlier interview that he was concerned about the long-term effects of the substances used. He referred to the recent deaths of Gianluca Vialli, aged 58, and Sinisa Mihaljovic, who turned 53.
Baggio was a teammate of Vialli at Juventus and Mihaljovic at Lazio in the 1990s. “I’m shocked when footballers from that time die so young. I’m not making a causal connection, but we have to investigate the exact substances we took during that time,” said Baggio.
Watch the episode of Other Times Sport about doping use at Juventus in 1996 below:
Other Times Sports: Blood treason in Ajax-Juventus CL final
The story that doping was used in (Italian) football in the 1990s has been going on for some time. Ten years ago, two Italian doping experts said they were convinced that the players of Juventus had used doping during the 1996 Champions League final against Ajax.
Champions League-finale Ajax-Juventus
In an episode of Other Times Sports The scientists Giuseppe d’Onofrio and Allessandro Donati concluded on the basis of documents with analyzes of blood samples from Juventus players that it was plausible that the Champions League winner at the time had been prepared with epo, among other things.
At the time, cyclists were often caught using doping, but this rarely or never happened among football players.
In 2004, however, Juventus team doctor Riccardo Agricola was found guilty of sporting fraud by an Italian court for administering prohibited substances, including EPO, between 1994 and 1998. He received a suspended prison sentence of 22 months, but was still acquitted on appeal.
