Ivan Waddington

Drug use in English professional football

Objectives: To examine several issues related to drug use in English professional football. More particularly the project sought to gather data on: players’ use of permitted supplements (mineral and vitamin pills and creatine); whether they sought advice, and if so from whom, about their use of supplements; their experience of and attitudes towards drug testing; their views on the extent of the use of banned performance enhancing and recreational drugs in football; and their personal knowledge of players who used such drugs. Methods: With the cooperation of the Professional Footballers Association (PFA), reply paid postal questionnaires were delivered to the home addresses of all 2863 members of the PFA. A total of 706 questionnaires were returned, a response rate of just under 25%. Results: Many players use supplements, although almost one in five players does so without seeking qualified professional advice from anyone within the club. Blood tests are rarely used to monitor the health of players. One third of players had not been tested for drugs within the preceding two years, and 60% felt that they were unlikely to be tested in the next year. The use of performance enhancing drugs appears to be rare, although recreational drugs are commonly used by professional footballers: 6% of respondents indicated that they personally knew players who used performance enhancing drugs, and 45% of players knew players who used recreational drugs. Conclusions: There is a need to ensure that footballers are given appropriate advice about the use of supplements in order to minimise the risk of using supplements that may be contaminated with banned substances. Footballers are tested for drugs less often than many other elite athletes. This needs to be addressed. The relatively high level of recreational drug use is not reflected in the number of positive tests. This suggests that many players who use recreational drugs avoid detection. It also raises doubts about the ability of the drug testing programme to detect the use of performance enhancing drugs.

An Introduction to Drugs in Sport: Addicted to Winning?

Why do many athletes risk their careers by taking performance enhancing drugs? Do the highly competitive pressures elite sports teach athletes to win at any cost? In order to understand the complex relationships between sport and other aspects of society, it is necessary to strip away our preconceptions of what sport is, and to examine, in as detached a manner as possible, the way in which the world of sport actually functions. This fully updated edition of Ivan Waddington’s classic introduction to drugs in sport examines the key terms and key issues in sport, drugs and performance and is designed to help new students explore these controversial subjects, now so central to the study of modern sport. The book addresses topics such as: - the emergence of drugs in sport and changing patterns of use - the development of an objective, sociological understanding - sports law, policy and administration - WADA, NGB’s and the sporting federations - case studies of football and cycling - the case of sports medicine. An Introduction to Drugs in Sport: Addicted to Winning is a landmark work in sports studies. Using interview transcripts, case studies and press cuttings to ground theory in reality, students and lecturers alike will find this an immensely readable and enriching resource.

Using ‘sport in the community schemes’ to tackle crime and drug use among young people: some policy issues and problems

This article seeks, first, to offer some critical comments on the policy issues and problems surrounding the use of sporting schemes as vehicles of social policy in which the intention is to reduce levels of crime, delinquency and drug ‘abuse’ among young people; second, to examine a point of fundamental importance in policy terms: do such schemes work? In this regard, it is claimed that relatively few of such schemes - which are largely premised upon a one-sided perception of sport - have built in processes for monitoring and evaluating their impact on levels of crime or drug use among young people. It is also argued that these methodological weaknesses are exacerbated by the absence of any clearly articulated theoretical rationale for these schemes, which means that, even where success for them is claimed, it is unclear what specific aspects of the schemes account for that claimed success.

The Establishment of the World Anti-Doping Agency A Study of the Management of Organizational Change and Unplanned Outcomes

This article examines the circumstances surrounding the establishment of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which was established following the World Conference on Doping in Sport convened by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and held in Lausanne in 1999. More specifically, the article draws upon Eliass game models to analyse: i) the way in which the IOC sought to manage this process of change in such a way that its longstanding position as the worlds leading anti-doping organization would be reinforced; and ii) the IOCs inability to control this process, with the result that the IOC failed to achieve any of its objectives, its position as the worlds anti-doping organization was actually undermined, and world leadership passed to a new organization which had a significant measure of independence from the IOC.

Surveillance and control in sport: a sociologist looks at the WADA whereabouts system

This paper draws upon the sociology of Norbert Elias to examine some central aspects of the whereabouts system introduced by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) as part of its anti-doping policies. More specifically, the paper aims to: (1) locate the whereabouts system within the context of broader social processes, including changing practices and ideas concerning surveillance and control, personal liberty, privacy and democracy; (2) examine the impact of the introduction of the whereabouts system on the relationship between elite athletes and WADA; and (3) examine some of the difficulties in developing and implementing anti-doping policy. In relation to the latter, it is suggested that the introduction of the whereabouts policy has had a number of unplanned consequences which, from WADAs perspective, will almost certainly be seen as unwelcome: the alienation of large numbers of athletes, whose cooperation is essential if the system is to operate smoothly and efficiently; the deteriorating relationship with other key organizations such as the EU; the emergence of a challenge, led by the European Elite Athletes Association, to the legitimacy of decision-making processes within WADA; and finally, the uneven application of the whereabouts requirements which has led to the creation of what many athletes see as a new form of unfairness.

Anthropological versus sociological approaches to the study of soccer hooliganism: some critical notes

It is argued that the anthropological approach, as used by Armstrong and Harris, has not generated any breakthrough in the study of soccer hooliganism. In particular, it is suggested that their use of a commonsense rather than a sociological concept of violence vitiates their analysis in several ways, contributing above all to substantial inconsistencies between some of their own empirical data and their general conclusions concerning levels of soccer-related violence. It is also contended that their critique of the ‘figurational’ or ‘process-sociological’ approach followed by the Leicester researchers is based on a confused misrepresentation of that approach. Specifically it is argued (i) that Armstrong and Harris fail to recognize the wide range of methods, including extensive participant observation, used by the Leicester group, (ii) that their attempt to cast doubt on the Leicester groups contention that the core football hooligans come predominantly from the ‘rougher’ sections of the working class is based on nothing more than a priori speculation. In this connection, Armstrong and Harris themselves provide no reliable data on the social class of soccer hooligans in Sheffield, and they seem unaware of the fact that several different sources of data appear to confirm the finding of the Leicester group, (iii) they have misunderstood both the terminology and the reasoning of the Leicester group concerning the ‘rougher’ sections of the working class and their relationship to football hooliganism.

The Role of the Hospital in the Development of Modern Medicine: A Sociological Analysis

Basic and far-reaching innovations in the structure of medical knowledge were made in Paris in the early part of the nineteenth century. In order to explore the social basis of these innovations, attention is focused on the development of hospitals in Paris, and the way in which this development was associated with the emergence of the doctor as the dominant figure in the doctor-patient relationship. This type of relationship is contrasted with the structure of practitioner-client relationships in the eighteenth century, which were characterized by a structure of client control. Some of the ways in which the dominance of the doctor within the hospital situation facilitated innovation in medical knowledge are examined.

Managing Pain and Injury in Non-elite Rugby Union and Rugby League: A Case Study of Players at a British University

Studies of elite and professional athletes have pointed to a high level of tolerance of pain among such athletes, coupled with a willingness to continue training and competing even when injured and in pain. The central object of this article is to examine some of the ways in which non-elite players of rugby union and rugby league at a British university respond to and manage pain and injury. The central finding is that the attitudes and behaviour of the non-elite rugby players appear to be broadly similar to the attitudes and behaviour of elite and professional athletes in other sports. This suggests that key elements of the ‘culture of risk’ which has been identified in elite and professional sport are not confined to elite sport but that they are also characteristic of non-elite sport. Particularly important in this regard is the culture of ‘playing hurt’, that is, continuing to play with pain and injury, the value of which is clearly accepted by the non-elite rugby players in this sample. These findings suggest that the ‘culture of risk’ cannot be adequately explained in terms of relatively recent commercial and financial pressures in professional and elite sport to ‘play hurt’, but that it may be a more deeply rooted characteristic of sport at all levels. The paper also examines some of the implications of these findings for government policies designed to improve the health of the nation by encouraging people to participate in sport.

Abuse, Intimidation and Violence as Aspects of Managerial Control in Professional Soccer in Britain and Ireland

Using semi-structured tape-recorded interviews, this study focuses on the ways in which managers maintain control over players in professional soccer clubs. More specifically, the article focuses on the ways in which disciplinary codes are established by managers and the sanctions that are imposed on players for breaches of club discipline. The findings highlight the arbitrary character of these codes and the central part played by intimidation and abuse, both verbal and physical, as aspects of managerial control within clubs. We argue that these techniques of managerial control reflect the origins of professional soccer in late Victorian England, when professional players were the equivalent of industrial workers and, like industrial workers, were seen as requiring authoritarian regulation and control. This pattern of management has persisted in professional soccer long after it has been superseded in industrial relations more generally because, while many aspects of the management of soccer clubs have involved increasing professionalization and bureaucratization, the role of the manager has proved remarkably resistant to these processes. The authority of the team manager continues to be based on traditional forms of authoritarianism and this allows managers an unusually high degree of autonomy in defining their own role, while placing relatively few constraints on their authority in relation to players.

Pain and Injury in Sport : Social and Ethical Analysis

Contributors Acknowledgements Introduction Section I Pain and Injury in Sports: Three Overviews 1 The Sociology of Pain and Injury in Sport: Main Perspectives and Problems Martin Roderick 2 Sport and the Psychology of Pain Kirsten Kaya Roessler 3 Three Approaches to the Study of Pain in Sport Sigmund Loland Section II Pain, Injury and Performance 4 The Place of Pain in Running John Bale 5 Pains and Strains on the Ice: Some thoughts on the Physical and Mental Struggles of Polar Adventurers Matti Goksoyr 6 Injured Female Athletes: Experiential Accounts from England and Canada Hannah Charlesworth and Kevin Young Section III The Deliberate Infliction of Pain and Injury 7 Sport and the Systematic Infliction of Pain: a Case Study of State Sponsored Mandatory Doping in East Germany Giselher Spitzer 8 Pain and Injury in Boxing: The Medical Profession Divided Ken Sheard 9 The Intentional Infliction of Pain in Sport: Ethical Perspectives Jim Parry Section IV The Management of Pain and Injury 10 Sports Medicine: A very Peculiar Practice? Doctors and Physiotherapists in Elite English Rugby Union Dominic Malcolm 11 Ethical Problems in the Medical Management of Sports Injuries: a Case Study of English Professional Football Ivan Waddington 12 The Ontology of Sports Injuries and Professional Medical Ethics Yotam Lurie 13 The Role of Injury in the Organization of Paralympic Sport P. David Howe Section V The Meaning of Pain and Injury 14 Suffering in and for Sport: Some Philosophical Remarks on a Painful Emotion Mike McNamee 15 Pain, Suffering and Paradox in Sport and Religion Jeffrey P. Fry