AFP
London
Top English football clubs, including Premier League leaders Leicester City, have all angrily denied a newspaper report that a doctor who prescribed performance-enhancing drugs treated their players.
Leicester, defending champions Chelsea and Arsenal were cited in a Sunday Times report in which London-based private doctor Mark Bonar was secretly filmed talking about providing professional athletes with banned substances. All three clubs strongly denied the allegations as it emerged the Omniya clinic in London, where the 38-year-old doctor rented consulting rooms, had ended his professional services agreement on Friday after learning he does not have a current licence to practise medicine in the UK.
"Any doctor without a licence who continues to carry out the privileged duties of a doctor is committing a serious breach of our guidance, and potentially a criminal offence," said Niall Dickson, the chief executive of the General Medical Council, which regulates doctors in Britain.
Several hours after the Sunday Times published its story, Leicester won 1-0 at home to Southampton to go seven points clear at the summit of English football. After Sunday's match, Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri was asked what he thought of the allegations.
But before the Italian could answer, a club spokesman stepped in and referred reporters to a Leicester statement issued earlier Sunday which made clear the East Midlands side's disgust at being linked to the report.
"Leicester City Football Club is extremely disappointed that The Sunday Times has published unsubstantiated allegations referring to players from clubs including Leicester City when, on its own admission, it has insufficient evidence to support the claims," it said.
London teams Chelsea and Arsenal both issued similarly strong statements denying any link to Bonar. The Sunday Times, which has been at the heart of several doping exposes involving international athletics over the last 12 months, conducted an undercover operation on anti-ageing doctor Bonar, who claims to have had a network of "secret clients".
The broadsheet said Bonar named athletes from several different sports. Those contacted -- but not named -- by the paper either denied being treated by him or declined to comment. The newspaper was quick to add they had no independent evidence that he treated the unnamed players.
Bonar, who was filmed covertly, is heard telling reporters he had also worked with an England cricketer, British Tour de France cyclists, a British boxing champion, tennis players and martial arts competitors. "In the past six years he has treated more than 150 sports people from the UK and abroad variously with banned substances such as erythropoietin (EPO), steroids and human growth hormone, and the sports performance improvements were phenomenal," the report said.
In the newspaper's footage, Bonar is filmed saying: "Some of these treatments I use are banned on the professional circuit. It's how you do it," he said, adding: "You want to do it off-cycle or between races... The truth of the matter is drugs are in sport."
UK Anti-Doping (UKAD), the agency responsible for protecting British sport from drug abuse, confirmed they were aware of Bonar two years ago, but said they had no power to investigate him. UKAD said it interviewed a sportsman in April and May 2014 who, in hoping to reduce his sanction, provided them with more than 100 names, 69 of which related to sport.
UKAD added it could only investigate athletes and their entourage (including medics) who fall under a sporting governing body.
In response to the expose, Bonar said it was irrelevant that some of his clients were professional athletes. "If they have proven deficiencies on blood work and are symptomatic, I will treat them," he said. "I do not 'dope' or treat patients for the sole purpose of performance enhancement even though these treatments may enhance performance as a secondary effect."
Britain's sports minister John Whittingdale said he was "shocked" by the allegations and has demanded an urgent independent investigation. "The government is already looking at whether existing legislation in this area goes far enough," he said. "If it becomes clear that stronger criminal sanctions are needed then we will not hesitate to act."
