With the Daily Mail reporting that Kolo Toure is set to find out his fate from an FA-led tribunal some time this week, it’s worth assessing once more. Just what punishment does Manchester City defender Kolo Toure deserve for failing his drugs test.
Cheat is such a strong word in sport. Kolo Toure will be labelled with this description for the remainder of his career, deserved or not. Now personally, I never had him down as a cheat. A former captain of two top-flight teams; he has been setting an example and leading from the front with his heart on his sleeve for almost 10 years now. I can’t picture him taking performance-enhancing drugs knowingly.
There are several matters that do need to be addressed however.
Firstly I want to analyse why he was taking this ‘slimming aid’. If Kolo Toure, a professional sportsman who trains every day, feels the need to take a diet pill, the Manchester City fitness coaches need to be taking a serious look at themselves.
As does Kolo Toure for that matter. Unless he has a real issue with body image and can’t stand the fact that pretty boys such as Carlos Tevez and Joleon Lescott are making him look bad, there should be no need for even thinking about using a drug specifically tailored to fight obesity.
The fact that a sportsperson too lazy to fight his weight problems through regimented exercise has to turn to drugs is a damning indictment of a profession already subject to ridicule. Snoods, gloves, pony tails and now diet drugs. It really is like a long, painful episode of America’s next top model (not that I watch that… ahem).
Secondly, if found guilty, the reaction of the FA will be fascinating with regards to the punishment handed out. Rio Ferdinand was handed an 8 month ban for missing a drugs test and Paddy Kenny got 9 months for testing positive for ephedrine.
Consistency will surely take chief precedent for the FA, and Kolo Toure will be looking at a sentence similar to the formers.
It is imperative that Toure receives a similar punishment. If not, the ramifications could be severe for an overly impressionable generation of young footballers, who might have the odd diet pill as soon as they feel a bit of flab. Not only does it encourage laziness, it will add to our growing problems as a society in facing obesity.
However, we do need to look at the other side of the coin. The rules stated on the Football Association Doping Control Programme do not apply to each unique case when dealing with banned substances. Particularly in situations regarding high profile footballers such as Kolo Toure, there is a need to investigate thoroughly and determine whether malice was meant and not simply throw the book at them in order to make examples for others.
The life of a professional footballer is not complicated. You play a game, you train and you go home. Sure, most are over-paid and most don’t deserve the extra-ordinary riches that come their way. But believe it or not, some actually deserve their salaries by setting examples to others through dedication and commitment to their job. As I write this, I feel a pang of regret for Toure, one who may well have fitted this description. Now a man committed completely to his profession, in one moment of carelessness, has had his reputation tarnished.
It is recoverable. Just ask Rio Ferdinand. Captain of England and a national hero, despite being banned under equally, if not more, suspicious circumstances 7 years ago. But on the terraces, in debates around the pubs when fans argue who the best defenders were during the Premier League years, fans arguing for their case for Kolo Toure will always be met with the counter blow ‘Yeah, but he’s a cheat’. This is the real price that he will have to pay.
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Put him on a diet of Gregg’s pasties and jammie doughnuts for 9 months. That’ll teach him for trying to stay slim. It’s a disgrace !
Tevez was burnt and Lescott run over and dragged under a car – either was hardly their fault!!!!
Left to the Daily Mail, it would be hanging and disembowelling. Every real supporter of the game knows that Kolo is not a cheat. Arsene Wenger leapt to his defence, and his current club support him all the way. It’s a storm in a teacup. Why don’t you write about something newsworthy? I’m sure it will be much to your dismay, but Manchester City will continue to rise and Kolo will be back, sorry Mr Constable
If he knew he was taking a performance enhancing substance then, don’t you think he would have avoided the drug test like the plague.
You only have to look at Rio Ferdinand at united to see the difference between guilty as sin and innicence.
Rio Ferdinand failed to show up twice where as Kolo showed up not knowing he would fail because of a substance within something he took.
This is the case of the British media blowing it way out of preportion and as an Englishman I have to say that I am disgusted that I have to share my oxygen with these morons.
Like others here I’m a big fan of Kolo (though I’m not a City fan). I don’t think he is a cheat but he IS a professional sportsman and therefore totally responsible for everything he eats or takes. It’s a very small step from taking a drug by mistake to taking it for performance enhancement. That’s why the FA must show consistency and hand down a lengthy ban.
The idea that Kolo must be innocent because he turned up for his test is risible. Had he not tipped up he would have been pursued by the dope testers and, in the current climate, probably charged anyway.
As for ‘blowing it way out of proportion’, oh please, spare us the cliches. I want the media to rigorously investigate every doping allegation in football. Players already think they’re above the rules (and the law).
The alternative is to let Arsene Wenger decide because…er..he sees everything.
Morning TIF..An interesting situation with Kolo T..as a Gooner he was good for us for the most part(till he came back with a virus from the ANC) BUT alas he has fallen foul of the banned substance rules and regs…so we must ask about the fact that Paddy Kenny (then SHeff U) got a 9/10 month ban as a chamionship player but as a top prem star Kolo T only gets 6 months…is this refelcting his defence that it was a substance taken to help lose weight ermmm????!!!!..a bit innocent…on the other hand he is on prob a hundred grand a week therefore should know what he can and cant do..having said that, reflect against Rio F who well need not say more…its about responsibility and acceptance of such and thats where the very likeable, pretty much honest pro that Kolo T is..has failed in his duty as a role model and as a pro footballer to sustain.But Kolo will be back for sure and alas the petro dollar rubbish that Mancini serves up called football will continue to stain the Premiership..if only they werent scared to play football!!!!A well thought out piece of writing Mr Constable and you rasied some very valid points
Best Richie Gooner