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Judge rejects Juventus request in blood-boosting hormone EPO trial
AP
September 22, 2004
TURIN, Italy - A judge in the Juventus drug trial ruled Monday that club officials will also have
to defend against the administration of the blood-boosting hormone EPO to players, news agencies reported.
EPO was not included on the list of substances in the initial charges against Juventus chairman Antonio
Giraudo and team doctor Riccardo Agricola, who are accused of giving players banned substances in the 1990s.
On Monday, Judge Giuseppe Casalbore rejected club lawyer Luigi Chiappero's request to avoid the addition
of a new charge, which was presented in a surprise move by prosecutors in the last hearing in the case.
"It's a change that completely alters the meaning of the charges," Chiappero was quoted as saying by the
ANSA news agency in making the request. "You can't do that now."
The judge also rejected Chiappero's request for Juventus players Antonio Conte and Alessio Tacchinardi,
along with ex-medical staff member Fabrizio Tencone, to be heard before the court, to testify that they were
not given any illicit blood transfusions.
"It's really a curious trial, after so many years the prosecutors twist the charges," Chiappero added after
his request was rejected. "We respect the decision, naturally, but the fact remains that the question that we
raised also served to signal the weakness of the accusation."
Juve prosecutor demands jail terms
Reuters
25/10/04
The public prosecutor in the Juventus doping trial has asked for the club's chief executive
and medical chief to be given jail sentences. Juventus chief executive Antonio Giraudo and
medical chief Riccardo Agricola are accused of administering banned drugs to players between
1994 and 1998.
Both have denied the allegations
Public prosecutor Raffaele Guariniello asked on Monday for a jail sentence of two years and
one month for Giraudo and three years and two months for Agricola.
The trial started in January 2002 and in October last year, an Italian pharmacologist told
the trial that Juventus had a store containing 281 medicines with at least five prohibited
anti-inflammatory drugs.
A number of past and present Juventus players have already appeared as witnesses in the case,
including former European Player of the Year Roberto Baggio and Real Madrid's French
international Zinedine Zidane.
The players say they only took legal supplements during their time at the club.
Guariniello began his probe in August 1998 after claims by former Roma coach Zdenek Zeman,
now in charge of Serie A team Lecce, that drug use was rife within Italian soccer.
2 7 - 1 1 - 2 0 0 4
Clubarts Juventus gevangenis in
26 november 2004
ANP
TURIJN - Clubarts Riccardo Agricola van Juventus is schuldig
bevonden aan sportieve fraude en heeft daarvoor vrijdag een
gevangenisstraf van 22 maanden en een boete van 2000 euro gekregen.
Directeur Antonio Giraudo werd vrijgesproken in de veelbesproken
dopingaffaire.
Agricola's advocaat Paolo Trofino vertelde dat de rechter zijn
cliënt heeft veroordeeld wegens het toedienen van de
'bloedverrijker' epo. "Precies dat was een zwak punt in de aanklacht
van het Openbaar Ministerie. Ik denk niet dat het in hoger beroep
stand houdt", zei Trofino, daarmee al aangevend dat de rechtszaak
een vervolg krijgt.
Het is overigens niet waarschijnlijk dat Agricola ook werkelijk
achter de tralies verdwijnt. Mensen van onbesproken gedrag komen er
in Italië bij een eerste overtreding op dit gebied normaliter vanaf
met een voorwaardelijke straf. "Deze uitspraak had ik verwacht", zei
openbaar aanklager Raffaele Guariniello. "Maar het is pas de eerste
stap."
Zeman
De zaak sleept al zes jaar. Zdenek Zeman, toentertijd coach van
Lecce, gaf de aanzet. Hij zei in een tijdschriftinterview dat het
Italiaanse voetbal maar eens 'uit de medicijnkast moest komen'. Hij
beschuldigde met name Juventus van het gebruik van verboden
prestatiebevorderende middelen.
De officier van justitie deed onderzoek naar de handel en wandel van
de medische staf van Juve in de periode 1994-1998. De club werd toen
driemaal Italiaans kampioen en pakte bovendien een Europa Cup. De
rechtszaak begon in 2002. Onder anderen Zinedine Zidane, Gianluca
Vialli en Roberto Baggio, destijds de sterspelers van Juventus,
werden door de rechter gehoord.
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Juventus guilty of drug abuse
November 27, 2004
From James Eve in Rome and John Goodbody
ITALIAN football faced one of the biggest
scandals in its scarred history yesterday, after
a Turin judge found the Juventus doctor,
Riccardo Agricola, guilty of administering
banned drugs to some of the world’s leading
players during the 1990s. Agricola received a
22-month prison sentence but Antonio Giraudo,
the director of the Turin club, who was charged
with the same offence, was acquitted.
Agricola’s conviction was the result of a
six-year investigation by Raffaele Guariniello,
the public prosecutor, who accused the 27-times
Italian champions of systematically doping
players between 1994 and 1998, one of the most
successful periods in their history.
During those years Juventus won three Serie A
titles as well as the 1996 Champions League.
Clubs that finished runners-up in those
competitions could go to court claiming to be
the true winners.
Juventus tried to limit the damage yesterday.
Paolo Trofino, their lawyer, said that Agricola
“was condemned for what was the weak point of
the prosecution’s charges, the administration of
erythropoietin (EPO). The sentence will be
difficult to get through appeal.”
Many of the club’s present and former players
had appeared as witnesses, including Zinedine
Zidane, Roberto Baggio, Alessandro Del Piero and
Gianluca Vialli. All denied taking drugs, though
the verdict will leave a stain on their
achievements with the club.
Luigi Chiappero, a defence lawyer, said: “This
trial shows that there is a rejection of the use
of pharmaceutical products in sport, that people
have to play without extra help. We’ll see if
this theory is accepted. But it goes against the
reality of today.”
Guariniello’s investigation was prompted by
comments made in 1998 by Zdenek Zeman, the coach
of Lecce, who told L’Espresso magazine that
Italian football had to “get out of the
pharmacy” and pointed the finger at Juventus.
A search of the Turin club’s training complex
revealed 281 different kinds of drugs, including
five prohibited anti-inflammatories. During the
trial, which started in January 2002,
Gianmartino Benzi, professor of pharmacology at
Pavia University, said: “Stocks resembled the
quantity you would find in a small hospital.”
Last week, Vialli claimed that the trial was a
consequence of lax Italian libel laws. He said:
“In contrast with England, here anyone can say
what they want, with complete immunity. I don’t
think anyone believes him (Zeman), but a shadow
remains.”
The shadow has grown longer because
international football and particularly players
in Italy have become contaminated by drugs in
recent years.
In 1998, the Acqua Acetosa laboratory,
accredited by the International Olympic
Committee, admitted that documents relating to
dope tests in football had disappeared and the
laboratory was closed after police discovered
papers stuffed into air-conditioning vents.
At about the same time, it was found that many
of the Parma squad had abnormally high
haematocrit levels, which meant they had more
oxygen-carrying red blood cells, so aiding their
stamina. This could have been the result of the
players undergoing altitude training in July but
could have been caused by taking EPO.
The laboratory reopened in September 2000. That
season, nine players in the Italian League were
banned for drug offences, including Edgar
Davids, of Juventus, for failing a test for
nandrolone, the anabolic steroid. Two other
Dutch players, Jaap Stam, then with Lazio, and
Frank de Boer, then at Barcelona, were also
given short bans for nandrolone use.
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[Definitie:] "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance."
(Wilmore and Costill) 
