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Are blood bags in a Barcelona hospital about to cause a new doping scandal?

Madrid’s Provincial Court is set to make a decision later this month which could allegedly ...



Are blood bags in a Barcelona...
Soccer

Are blood bags in a Barcelona hospital about to cause a new doping scandal?

Madrid’s Provincial Court is set to make a decision later this month which could allegedly either expose or cover up one of the biggest doping scandals in sporting history.

Eufemiano Fuentes, a Madrid-based doctor was arrested in 2006 on suspicion of being involved in doping athletes. At the time of his arrest, 200 bags of blood were confiscated from his clinic.

Judge Julia Patricia Santamaria ordered for the blood bags to be destroyed three years ago, but they still remain in a hospital in Barcelona. Their future will be decided upon in the coming weeks.

The Sunday Times Chief Sports Reporter David Walsh spoke to Newstalk Breakfast this morning about the future ruling and its potential impact on all of sport. "The blood bags that the police seized, 211 to be precise, have never been matched up to the athletes whose blood they contained." 

Spanish cyclists have been implicated in the Operation Puerto but Walsh states that more sports are also involved; "From information that Fuentes himself has put out there in the public domain, he did have clients in other sports. Football was mentioned, tennis was mentioned, boxing was mentioned... It's reasonable to believe that there were over 100 athletes involved."

Walsh feels that there is a legal impediment from blocking the blood bags being public. Despite allegations of a cover up from the World Anti-Doping Agency and numerous other bodies, Walsh feels they won't see the light of day.  

"There is a huge pressure on Spain to make these (blood bags) available because they are being accused of covering up their star athletes". Walsh also spoke of how Fuentes hinted that he had drawn up plans for Real Madrid and Barcelona players to use his services, but they never did.

Are blood bags in a Barcelona hospital about to cause a new doping scandal?

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