If the announcement of Paul Pogba’s positive test, on the sidelines of Juventus’ match against Udinese on August 20, 2023, was the subject of an explosion this Monday, it is not a question of a first in the history of French football. Before the 2018 world champion, other French players and not the least of them have, in fact, suffered similar setbacks. Some have thus been sanctioned for the absorption of anabolics, others for taking Cannabis…
Regarding the former international, Philippe Anziani, the first to have been suspended for three matches for doping, he was accused of having used Di-Antalvic in the fall of 1989 to soothe lower back pain. This affair was revealed only a few months after the vote on the “Bambuck” law, on June 28, 1989, named after the Minister of Youth and Sports at the time, relating to the repression of the use of doping during sporting competitions and events.
Anabolics
Six French players tested positive for anabolic drugs (nandrolone) in the 1990s:
David Garcion (Lille): The news was only made public on April 3, 1997 for facts produced on December 20, 1996 during the Nice-Lille match (D 2). David Garcion, tested positive for anabolics (Nandrolone, the same substance by which Ben Johnson was sentenced to 2 years of suspension after the Seoul games in 1988), is suspended at first instance for eighteen months (nine of which are closed) . The appeal committee, contacted by the Mastiff midfielder, reduced the sanction to six months firm and twelve months suspended in May 1997.
Cyrille Pouget (Le Havre): The biggest transfer in the history of the HAC, the striker, a defector from PSG, tested positive on September 12, 1997 after the Bordeaux-Le Havre match. He was suspended on July 2, 1998 for eighteen months (six of which were closed). A sanction confirmed on appeal on August 18, 1998. The request for conciliation from the French National Olympic Sports Committee (CNOSF), seized of the file, was rejected by the FFF on September 8, 1998. The former Metz serves the entirety of the sanction.
Dominique Arribagé (Toulouse): Also tested positive for anabolics on September 26, 1997 after the match between Toulouse and Guingamp in 1997, he was suspended on January 8, 1998 for eighteen months (including six months). A sanction confirmed on appeal on February 25, 1998. The request for conciliation before the CNOSF suspends the sanction and is followed by the administrative court of Toulouse. But, on June 10, 1999, the Bordeaux administrative court issued a decree requiring the central defender to serve his suspension until mid-October.
Antoine Sibierski (Auxerre): The Icaunais midfielder tested positive for anabolic drugs on September 26, 1997 during Metz-Auxerre. Suspended on February 8, 1998 for eighteen months (six of which were suspended), he was finally “cleared” on February 25 by the federal appeals commission for the benefit of the scientific doubt. It had in fact been controlled at a threshold barely exceeding the fateful threshold of 2 nanograms.
Vincent Guérin (PSG): Then a PSG player, Vincent Guérin tested positive for anabolic drugs on October 5, 1997 after Nantes-PSG. He was suspended on January 8, 1998 for eighteen months (six of which were closed). The decision confirmed on appeal on February 25, 1998 before being suspended by the CNOSF, which asked to “set up new scientific investigations”. On July 3, 1998, the administrative court of Versailles annulled the sanction of the international, who had never stopped proclaiming his innocence, for formal defects.
Christophe Dugarry (Marseille): Tested positive on April 30, 1999 at the end of Marseille-Lyon, the 1998 world champion was exonerated due to a procedural defect, in September in Paris, by the doping commission of the French Football Federation (FFF). The control operations were purely and simply considered “null and without effect”. This commission, chaired by Jean-Yves Audureau, followed the opinion of the player’s four lawyers. They highlighted the fact that the expert responsible for carrying out the tests was only sworn in on the following June 9, before the Marseille high court. He therefore had no mandate to carry out the tests.
Cannabis
Stéphane Paille (Mulhouse): The 1988 European champion, who died in 2017, tested positive on September 23, 1995 after the Mulhouse-Niort (D2) match. He is suspended for two months. In November of the same year, he terminated his contract, amicably, with his club for “personal difficulties”. The following season, he tried one last experience as a player in Scotland, at Heart of Midlothian FC, from which he was suspended in May 1997 after testing positive for Dinintel (appetite suppressant).
Fabien Barthez (Monaco): Arriving from Marseille, then in D2, during the off-season, Fabien Barthez had a complicated start. In August 1995, he broke his wrist. In October, he tested positive for cannabis at the end of the match between Nantes and Monaco. Three months later, on January 18, 1996, he was suspended for four months, two of which were closed, and received a financial sanction from the principality club for an amount that remained secret. He will work with young people to do prevention. and will still be selected for Euro 1996 as Bernard Lama’s understudy.
Bernard Lama (PSG): Tested positive for cannabis during a preparation course for the France team before the friendly match against the Netherlands, played on February 26, 1997 in Paris, Bernard Lama was suspended for 5 months, including two suspensions. . This unannounced examination was carried out at the request of the Ministry of Youth and Sports. The goalkeeper was sidelined by his club PSG during the summer of 1997, then joined West Ham on loan in January 1998. He participated in the World Cup a few months later in the shadow of Fabien Barthez named number 1 by Aimé Jacquet before the start of the tournament.
Intravenous infusion
Samir Nasri: In February 2018, then without a club after leaving Antalyaspor, Samir Nasri, the international midfielder (41 caps, 5 goals), was sentenced by UEFA to a six-month suspension for having used an intravenous drip of vitamins in 2016, in a clinic in Los Angeles (Drip Doctors). This practice is prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) unless the individual presents proof and respects the doses (less than 50 ml). The Frenchman had not received agreement from UEFA to use this practice for therapeutic purposes. His suspension will be extended to 18 months retroactively, i.e. from July 2017 to January 2019. Although he then played again with West Ham and Anderlecht in 2019, the Marseillais never returned to his best level.
Sakho, punished plus rehabilitated
Mamadou Sakho (Liverpool): In 2016, Mamadou Sakho is a central element of Jurgen Klopp’s system at Liverpool. On March 17, he tested positive during the Europa League round of 16 second leg against Manchester United. The world anti-doping agency accuses the hero of France-Ukraine 2013 of doping by taking higenamine, a molecule belonging to the category of beta-2 agonists, which improve respiratory capacity or burn fat and are prohibited for “long date “.
Suspended for 30 days until May 28, he is deprived of the C3 final with Liverpool and is not included in the list of 23 French players for the Euro. In July 2016, he was cleared by the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Committee. Three years later, he even obtained an apology and financial compensation from the WADA which had wrongly incriminated him.
