Players drug test Thread

[Flex]

Two players failed drug test.
By Walter Alibey (Guardian).

Two at­tack­ing play­ers who ply their trade in the T&T Pro League were dropped from Den­nis Lawrence's 23-man pro­vi­sion­al squad in prepa­ra­tion for a mouth-wa­ter­ing in­ter­na­tion­al friend­ly en­counter with Wales on March 20.

One of the play­ers is a for­mer na­tion­al un­der-17 and 20 youth mid­field­er who made his in­ter­na­tion­al de­but ver­sus Cu­raçao in June 2015, while the oth­er is a reg­u­lar to the se­nior na­tion­al team, who plays as a strik­er. Both were im­me­di­ate­ly dropped by the lanky coach, whose ini­tia­tive it was, for ran­dom drug test­ing to be im­ple­ment­ed when he as­sumed the po­si­tion of T&T head coach.

It was ini­tial­ly ru­moured that five play­ers were found pos­i­tive from the test­ing, but a source close to the foot­ball as­so­ci­a­tion con­firmed that it was on­ly two that had failed when test­ed

The squad, which con­sists of the coun­try's top play­ers such as goal­keep­er Adri­an Fon­cette, strik­er Shah­don Win­ches­ter, mid­field­er Nathan Lewis, Mar­vin Philip and strik­er Ataullah Guer­ra, is set to wing out on Sun­day.

Yes­ter­day new gen­er­al sec­re­tary of the TTFA Ca­ma­ra David refuse to com­ment on the mat­ter, say­ing the coach is ex­pect­ed to hold a press con­fer­ence be­fore the squad leaves, to ad­dress the me­dia. David who re­placed Justin Lat­apy-George, whose con­tract ex­pired in No­vem­ber last year, said the foot­ball as­so­ci­a­tion has agreed to have just one voice on mat­ters re­lat­ed to foot­ball, rather than hav­ing a num­ber of peo­ple talk to the me­dia.

"Lawrence will give all the in­for­ma­tion that is re­quired at the press con­fer­ence," David ex­plained. At­tempts to reach Lawrence were un­suc­cess­ful and it is un­sure if any fur­ther ac­tion will be tak­en against the play­ers by the foot­ball as­so­ci­a­tion or the clubs they rep­re­sent.

[Flex]

TTFA Statement
TTFA Media.

All members of Senior Men’s National Team underwent mandatory medical testing on March 7th and 8th as part of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association’s anti-doping programme.

The tests were conducted by the TTFA’s Medical team at the Ato Boldon Stadium. The players have been addressed and a communication has gone out to their clubs. The TTFA will continue its anti-doping programme as necessary and preparations remain ongoing under head coach Dennis Lawrence as the team looks ahead to departing for Wales on Sunday for its international friendly on March 20th.

FIFA and CONCACAF’s regulations require compliance with anti-doping from all football associations internationally, and itself carries out the drug-testing in international competitions. The TTFA will continue its medical testing leading into upcoming international competitions such as the CONCACAF Gold Cup, CONCACAF Nations League  and 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign.

[asylumseeker]

I heard a rumour that Diego Maradona failed a drug test at a World Cup. Anyone hear the same thing?

[Flex]

Rangers to help drug-tested players.
By Walter Alibey (Guardian).

Two play­ers test­ed pos­i­tive for mar­i­jua­na use, are set to re­ceive much-need­ed help from their T&T Pro League club St Ann's Rangers.

The play­ers, one a mid­field­er and the oth­er a strik­er, were im­me­di­ate­ly dropped from Den­nis Lawrence's pro­vi­sion­al na­tion­al squad fol­low­ing a ran­dom drug test on March 7 and 8. A T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion re­leased yes­ter­day con­firmed the pos­i­tive test and stat­ed that com­mu­ni­ca­tion is on­go­ing.

How­ev­er, new St Ann's Rangers man­ag­ing di­rec­tor Richard Fer­gu­son said his play­ers will not be aban­doned be­cause of one mis­take. While he did not name the two play­ers, he al­so did not rule out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of pun­ish­ment for the play­ers, Fer­gu­son told Guardian Me­dia Sports his club will rather seek ways of pro­vid­ing as­sis­tance, whether through seek­ing coun­selling or a psy­chi­a­trist.

Since news of their pos­i­tive test, the play­ers have been un­der in­ves­ti­ga­tion by the club.

Ac­cord­ing to the Rangers' rules and reg­u­la­tions re­gard­ing drug use, the play­ers are to pro­vide a writ­ten re­port, be­fore fac­ing the dis­ci­pli­nary com­mit­tee. "The club is in­ves­ti­gat­ing be­cause the play­ers are un­der con­tract. But we have faith in our play­ers, we have the play­ers' in­ter­ests at heart, and will there­fore not just aban­don them be­cause of a mis­take," Fer­gu­son ex­plained.

He added, "If there is a need to pun­ish them then that will hap­pen. The club has strict rules re­gard­ing drug use and it will def­i­nite­ly be tak­ing ac­tions."

The play­ers are set to re­ceive a warn­ing and pos­si­bly a fine for their first-time of­fence, Fer­gu­son said, but not­ed it will be­come more se­vere if play­ers are caught a sec­ond and third time etc. Mar­i­jua­na is not the on­ly drug that Rangers' play­ers will be pun­ished for, as they could face a sim­i­lar penal­ty for cig­a­rette use, al­co­hol and or any form of per­for­mance en­hance­ment drug.

T&T Pro League chair­man Richard Fakoory said his league stands firm­ly against drug use but has tak­en lit­tle to no ac­tion against play­ers, as they can­not af­ford to pay for the tests.

How­ev­er, he promised that when the new pro league sea­son starts, the league will en­force its rules and reg­u­la­tions.

Due to the lim­it­ed funds how­ev­er, the pro league has left it up to the var­i­ous clubs to take ac­tion for drug use.

[Flex]

The only players from Rangers (2018) team that has made the NT present/past one time or more are Jared London, Rhondel Gibson, Taryk Sampson and Marvin Phillip.

[Tallman]

How­ev­er, new St Ann's Rangers man­ag­ing di­rec­tor Richard Fer­gu­son said his play­ers will not be aban­doned be­cause of one mis­take. While he did not name the two play­ers, he al­so did not rule out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of pun­ish­ment for the play­ers, Fer­gu­son told Guardian Me­dia Sports his club will rather seek ways of pro­vid­ing as­sis­tance, whether through seek­ing coun­selling or a psy­chi­a­trist.

Counseling or a psychiatrist? For what exactly? Steups!

[asylumseeker]

I heard a rumour that Diego Maradona failed a drug test at a World Cup. Anyone hear the same thing?

Or was the information suppressed by a veil of secrecy?

[asylumseeker]

I once inquired whether the Pro League had a performance enhancing protocol in place. Guess what the answer was.

(In some ways this is like Pasarella saying he didn't want any long-haired players on his squad. Or no?)