Drugs - The beautiful game's nasty side

For years now the use of drugs within football has been constantly thrown into the spotlight. but are as many cases being publicised as we think?

The answer is no. Many football clubs from the Premier League to League 2 have kept high discretion over players that have failed drug tests in order to protect not only the players themselves but the identity of their football club. The idea that using a drug to enhance performance may seem appealing to some players but is there any need for it in retrospect. The main type of drugs that are commonaly shown in the nasty side of the beautiful game are stimulants, these include;

• Amphetamines, including illegal amphetamines ("speed", "crystal meth", "ice", "shabu")
• Cocaine ("coke", "crack")
• Ecstasy ("E", "XTC", "eccy")
• Slimming tablets such as Duromine, Tenuate Dospan and Ponderax.

For example Kolo Toure of Manchester City has just returned after a 2 month stint out of the game due to failing a drugs test. In an unconvincing story he told the court that he was taking his wife's slimming tablets because he was extremely insecure about his body, however it has been proven that drugs such as these can be used to mask the effects of other drugs. So was this the real truth behind Kolo Toure's moment of madness? There was inconclusive evidence to prove that he was taking the drug other than for the reason which he desribed so the court only awarded hi a 2 month ban from the game, which may argue was extremely leaniant at the time.

Stimulants act on the central nervous system to speed up the messages to and from the brain. They can make the user feel more awake, alert or confident. Stimulants increase heart rate, body temperature and blood pressure. Other effects include reduced appetite, dilated pupils, talkativeness, agitation and sleep disturbance. Therefore footballers see these as a way of speeding up their reaction times within a match or training in order to make them perform better. However with every drug there is always a side effect.. are the players fully aware of these at the time?

Large quantities of stimulants can "over-stimulate" the user, causing anxiety, panic, seizures, headaches, stomach cramps, aggression and paranoia. Prolonged use of strong stimulants can mask some of the effects of depressant drugs, such as alcohol, making it difficult for a person to judge their effects.

It is also seen as the "in" thing to do within the beautiful game as many footballers are being paid ridiculous amounts of money and so get to the point where they don't know what to do with it. Mario Balotelli is the good side to this argument as he has been documented in the press recently in accordance to giving his money away and doing crazy yet nice things which distribute his wealth to the City of Manchester.

Although the bad side is many footballers are not as sharing with their money and so instead use it for their own benefit entirely, for example drugs. Many footballers see social events and the perfect opportunity to do things which go against the perceptions we have of them. Which is that they are healthy eating, well behaved, non-alcohol drinking, non drug taking individuals. They do this by smoking cannabis or taking drugs orally without thinking about the consequences they're going to have on their football career.

Finally i feel that the ban for footballers found to be taking drugs for inacceptbale reasons should not be 2 months, 6 months, 1 year or even 2 years. I feel that it should be a LIFETIME ban from the sport as this is the only real way to discourage footballers turning the beautiful game into something nasty.