Gary Neville and Roy Keane have accused some of the opponents they faced with Manchester United in the Champions League of doping, with a strong suspicion of Italian teams not always being clean.
Neville and Keane, a pair of former United captains, played in the prestigious European tournament from the 1993-94 season until the 2010 and 2005 respectively.
On the latest Stick to Football podcast, Neville and Keane appeared baffled on how they came across players that seemed so fit that they didn’t look like they had played a match at full-time.
It is important to consider how these were professionals who didn’t live their private lives to the extreme. Fit internationals, too.
Neville said: “There are a couple that stick in my mind … I think there were a few teams that we played against that weren’t clean. We thought it at the time.”
The former United and England right-back referred to cycling and other sports in which taking performance-enhancing stimulants has proven to be prevent, in a way that almost suggests that it is the big elephant in the room that exists in the football.
Neville was careful not to many any accusations for legal reasons.
“My point is that when you look back now at what came out after in cycling and other sports and [with] doctors … We thought at the time there were things that physically [were not correct], because sorry, we were fit, we weren’t drinkers, we were fit [so we thought:] ‘That’s not right. There’s something not right.’ I came off the pitch against an Italian team and thought: ‘That’s not right.’ I know that a couple of the other lads in the mid-2000s thought exactly the same thing.”
Keane, who was also captain of the Republic of Ireland, added: “When we played certain teams I would be walking off and you were absolutely shattered,” he said. “I remember it. I would be looking at the players I played against, a couple of the Italian teams, and they looked like they’d not even played a match.”
Personally, I feel it is about time ex-pros spoke out about this because if it has been in cycling, you can be sure it is in football – which has no shortage of corruption as it is.
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