Fuentes: Connections to Football

The accused: Eufemiano Fuentes, his wife sister Yolanda, his aide José Merino Batres, the trainer Ignacio Labarta, and the former chiefs of the cycling-teams ONCE (Manolo Saiz) and Kelme (Vicente Belda). The spanish newspaper El Pais wrote back in September 2012 that these six may be sentenced to two years in prison because of crimes against public health.

Witnesses will be a lot of policemen as well as some cyclists: among them Alberto Contador, Ivan Basso and Jörg Jaksche. Footballers are neither accused nor called to be a witness. But if the Madrilenian prosecutors are serious, there could be talk about drugs in football. The connections are tight.

Eufemiano Fuentes // ddp

Eufemiano Fuentes used to work with Walter Viru. Viru should have been arrested in summer of 2006 at Operacion Puerto, too, but the Spanish Guardia Civil didn’t have enough workforce to do so. Together with Fuentes Viru administrated the drug-system at the cyclingteam Kelme, whose former manager is now one of the six accused persons. Furthermore Viru had his own drug network, which the police discovered three years later at Operacion Grial. In November 2009 policemen searched 15 medical practices, pharmacists and flats and found large amounts of human growth hormone, Epo and other drugs.

Virus clients have been cyclists and athletes from track and field. And Viru had close contact to the next drug-doctor, to Luis del Moral. In an interview with the French sportspaper L’Equipe, the whistleblower Jesus Manzano says, that del Moral has been a good friend of Walter Viru. Viru warned del Moral – according to Manzano, every time drug-testers were on their way to visit US Postal. So we get round to football.

Connections into football
Luis del Moral worked from 1999 until 2003 as a teamdoctor for the cyclingteam US Postal. Del Moral continued to mentor athletes after he left US Postal in 2003. He worked in Valencia at the university and as a consultant. The institute he worked for cares about everything an athlete can dream of: nutrition, personal training, sports medicine. Based at this institute del Moral worked for FC Valencia and FC Barcelona. The English website of the institute is shut down today. The site wrote, that del Moral is: „Medical Adviser for various football teams, most notably Barcelona CF and Valencia CF“. We reported on this in German back in October and made a screenshot:

Luis Garcia del Morals list of clients// screenshot performa.es

The connection of del Moral to football has been reported in different media. The Telegraph asked Barcelona and Valencia, if Luis Garcia del Moral worked for them. Barcelona said, that the club has looked up its staff documents: del Moral never got paid by the club. Barcelona however didn’t want to guarantee that del Moral has been paid to help individual players over a short period of time.

According to the Telegraph, del Morals connections to Barcelona date to the season 2003/2004 – the year del Moral quit at Armstrongs US Postal. Since then its medical unit has been turned upside down, Barcelona wrote to the Telegraph. Barcelona didn’t want to tell who has been in charge for the medical unit back then.

The Telegraph tried to reach FC Valencia by phone and mail, but the club didn’t respond. According to some reporting in Spain del Moral worked for Valencia in 2005, but only for a couple of months. We found some links (via tennishasasteroidproblem.com), which show the connection between del Moral and Valencia. First El Pais wrote about del Morals work for Valencia. Players criticized the work of del Moral and its colleagues in the fall of 2005, although del Moral & Co at that point have been in charge only for some months. Four months later the Spanish daily AS reported, that del Moral and his colleagues have been fired at the end of 2005. Apparently del Moral worked for Valencia, although it lasted only about half a year.

Eufemiano Fuentes was in charge of football clubs, too. According to French newspaper Le Monde, rumor has it that the Spanish doping physician Eufemiano Fuentes looked after Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Betis Sevilla, and FC Valencia. Barcelona sued the paper. Le Monde’s Head of Sports couldn’t provide the court with any physical evidence to substantiate his claim and was ordered to pay 15.000 Euro. Fuentes didn’t say a word in court. „I got death threats three times. There will be no fourth time“, he told Le Monde at the time.

[Update January 10 2013, 18.33: While Fuentes was in custody, he told a guy in his cell, that if he would tell the truth Spain would have to give back its Eurpean Championship title from 2008. Here is an old report citing this event (in French); tanks to @hem_arsenal.]

Star of German Bundesliga – a client of Fuentes?
Trusted sources tell us too that there have been football players visiting Fuentes. Among these players is someone who later played in the German Bundesliga. The name can’t be revealed, because these claims have not been substantiated. We have access to a small portion of the documents regarding Fuentes. They mention only cyclists. Did the Spanish justice ever investigate the names of any soccer players? Will it now?

Today Eufemiano Fuentes lives on the Canary Islands. In 2011, he still worked as a physician for the third-division soccer club UD Las Palmas. Allegedly, he continues to supply athletes with drugs. Fuentes didn’t respond to requests for comment.

[Update January 8, 9.57: Velonews reports that the judges in Madrid will concentrate on cyling. “While evidence initially pointed to a doping conspiracy thought to include athletes across several sports, including tennis, athletics and soccer, the judge formerly handling the case centered the investigation only on cycling.“]