Cannavaro in drip controversy
Italian football faces a new drugs row after state broadcaster RAI showed a film in which Juventus and former Parma defender Fabio Cannavaro is seen using a drip on the eve of the 1999 UEFA Cup final. Yet Cannavaro's lawyer confirmed the drip contained Neoton, a legal muscle-rebuilding substance.
The film, shown on RAI two's current affairs programme "Full Stop and From the Top", shows Cannavaro, then a Parma player, relaxing in his hotel room the evening before the UEFA Cup final against Olympique Marseille which the Italian club won 3-0.
The Italian international is shown inserting a drip into his arm which his lawyer confirmed contained Neoton, a drug used in cardiac surgery to protect the heart that is not on the World Anti Doping Agency's list of banned substances .
Earlier in the day the player sent a warning to RAI that he would take legal action if they accused him of doing anything illegal.
Cannavaro did not take part in the programme but his lawyer Paolo Trofino formed part of the panel that discussed the film after it had been broadcast.
"Neoton helps to regenerate muscle and it is not on the banned list ," Trofino said.
"We were concerned about the damage it might do to his image. If you go into a player's room the night before a big match and you see him with a drip, obviously that's going to be a shocking image. People might jump to conclusions."
Though Neoton is not banned, its associations with the long-running Juventus doping trial is unlikely to do much for Cannavaro's image.
Last year former World Footballer of the Year Zinedine Zidane told the judge conducting the trial he had taken the drug to cope with a heavy playing schedule during his time at Juventus between 1996 and 2001.
Cannavaro's team mate Lilian Thuram, who also played alongside him at Parma, said the film had been made by the players as a joke but would be misinterpreted by viewers.
"It creates an image of players that dope themselves up before each match," he said.
"We often play around with video cameras in the dressing rooms, but certain things are seen differently from the outside.
"Unfortunately we live in a world where people try to dirty and destroy even the little that remains clean. A player who has given so much to football and to the Italian national team deserves respect ."
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