Barcelona vs. Real Madrid: The Truth Behind the Doping Rumors

In the midst of what promises to be an unbelievably exciting finish to soccer season in Spain, with their two greatest clubs set to clash in historic fashion, an ugly scandal has arisen: Real Madrid, allegedly, suspects Barcelona of doping, and the Spanish media has gone wild.  But after two weeks of accusations, apologies, and "no comments", what do we really know?

It all began on the popular Spanish radio show “El Partido de las Doce”, broadcast on the Cadena COPE network.  The show’s host Juan Antonio Alcalá reported that Real Madrid was prepared to appear before the Royal Spanish Football Federation and ask for “more serious” anti-doping controls.  Their cause for concern is Valencia CF's association with doping doc Eufemiano Fuentes, and Barcelona's medical staff "of doubtful reputation".

The implications of these accusations are expansive.  Not only would this call into question Barcelona's recent haul of trophies, but Spain's European championship of 2008 and World championship of 2010 as well, as Barcelona players make up the core of the national squad.

Florentino Perez, president of Real Madrid, was one of the first to react by calling Barcelona’s president Sandro Rosell, assuring him that Madrid has not requested any such changes to doping policy.  Rosell apparently accepted this rather cordially, and has turned his attention instead to the radio station that aired the program: Cadena COPE, a right-wing media outlet affiliated with the Spanish Catholic Church.  Barcelona has demanded the identity of COPE’s informant be made public, and threatened extensive legal action.

COPE defended itself, saying that Madrid's request for these stricter controls is significant, and that their listeners should be the first to know.  They asserted that the intention was never to “put into doubt the sporting success of these clubs (Barcelona and Valencia), the actions of their medical staffs, nor, to be sure, the honesty of their players”.  Of course, that’s exactly the effect that the story has had.

As for the source, this “high level official” of Real Madrid who suspects foul-play?  Jorge Valdano, the general director of Real Madrid, denies his existence: “it is not true that we have asked, or have had any plans to ask, for any anti-doping controls”, adding that “Nobody is authorized to speak in the name of Real Madrid”.

Regardless of the source, Barcelona has taken this quite seriously.  A firm has been hired to calculate the monetary value of the blow to the team’s reputation.  The mere association of the word “doping” with the club could be valued as a multi-million dollar loss.  Unless Cadena COPE can shift the blame to their as-yet-unnamed source, the media channel itself will be held responsible.

Barcelona’s players have handled the news with varying amounts of class.  Leo Messi refused to even discuss the story, Andres Iniesta called the claims “very ugly and very grave”,  Xavi said the accusations are just extra motivation that will help Barcelona win more titles, and Pique used his Twitter account to sarcastically call out a surprise drug test Barcelona was subjected to just days after the rumor hit—”what a surprise!”.

Pep Guardiola has been characteristically tight-lipped, although he did call on Florentino Perez to “get his story straight” with Cadena COPE before talking to Barcelona.  From the Madrid camp, Spanish national Iker Casillas has decried the accusations as being totally unfounded and irrelevant, while Mourinho said that he doesn’t even believe doping exists in soccer.

And then there’s Joan Laporta, former president of Barcelona, who took a break from his political career to weigh in on the issue, saying that Real Madrid is “clearly behind” the accusations levelled against Barcelona: "because that’s what the correspondent said", and because Madrid “hasn’t presented a single demand against COPE, although they’re still within their time to do so”.  Laporta went on to call out Rosell for being too passive and for not going after COPE and Madrid with enough “forcefulness”.

Spanish Football has spoken out as well, responding in part to an earlier story from Marca.com that called La Liga's anti-doping controls "a joke".  Jaime Lissavetzky, state secretary of sport for Spain, said that "Spanish football is clean", and that La Liga complies with "Every rule that FIFA mandates".

To summarize: Madrid denies the statement, Cadena COPE denies the intent, Spanish Football denies the problem, and FC Barcelona is really mad.  In the end, it’s an ugly episode, that, barring a positive test result from Barcelona, will paint the Catalan club as victims, and Real Madrid as poor sports.  Whoever launched this rumor—whether affiliated with Madrid or not—perhaps got just what they were hoping for: a really big story and another chapter in one of sport's great rivalries.

Fortunately for everyone involved, the teams will have plenty of opportunities to battle it out on the field, with potentially four heart-pounding matches in what remains of a stellar season for both clubs.  Once some soccer results start coming in, perhaps this whole doping fiasco will be forgotten.