BERLIN — German football was thrown into turmoil after a doping commission said the use of banned substances in the sport as well as in cycling in the 1970s and 80s was more than just individual athletes stepping over the line. For decades the country sought to investigate East Germany's systematic doping before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 but there were indications doping was also present in West German sports. Those indications are now in part substantiated, says the evaluation commission on Freiburg University's doping past with evidence pointing to cycling and football. The 60-page report itself has not been published yet but Monday's two-page statement released by one of the commission members and confirmed by the commission, was enough to cause a furor. Bundesliga club VfB Stuttgart, which won the league in 1984, and Freiburg, in the second division at the time of the claims, said they had yet to see the report which goes back decades, making cross-referencing information difficult. Some former players, including Germany international Karl-Heinz Foerster, who played for Stuttgart, were quick to reject them. Germany's cycling federation (BDR) was reserved in its reaction Tuesday. "For the last 10 years, the German cycling federation has positioned itself clearly in the fight against doping and through prevention and information contribute to a new generation that sees manipulation for what it is. Cheating," said BDR General Secretary Martin Wolf Tuesday. Germany's sacred cow — the Bundesliga football league — has never seen such allegations with only a handful of positive doping tests in the past several decades. All of these were quickly dismissed as the fault of individuals rather than a network of organized doping, keeping its drugs-free image intact. But it must now face the most serious allegations yet, with the commission saying Stuttgart and Freiburg players used banned substances in the 1970s and 80s. German cycling also saw widespread doping between 1975-80. The German Football Association (DFB) and the Football League (DFL), contacted by Reuters, did not comment on the findings. At the heart of the issue is former Freiburg University's sports trauma unit chief Armin Kluemper, who allegedly provided athletes with anabolic steroids. Evaluation commission member Fritz Soergel said, especially for football, it was time to confront these allegations. "The DFB has been confronted with this since yesterday," Soergel told German ZDF television. "After these revelations ... and because football is the people's sport, the most popular sport, no stone should be left unturned." He did, however, say current anti-doping tests in football made drawing parallels with the 1970s irrelevant. "The past is a completely different chapter than now. Footballers experimented with that, taking stimulants and even combining them with alcohol," Soergel said. — Reuters
