Updated at 10.52
FORMER ULSTER AND Italy forward Carlo Del Fava has spoken about his ban for taking performance-enhancing drugs as a 20-year-old.
Del Fava served a two-year ban as a result of his actions, before playing for Ulster between 2007 and 2009.
The 36-year-old retired player, who has since become an outspoken anti-doping advocate, has come back into the spotlight after the recent controversy surrounding Gerbrandt Grobler, who was signed by Munster last summer despite having served a two-year ban for failing a drugs test in 2015.
Speaking on Off the Ball AM, Del Fava explained his reasons for choosing to take PEDs as a youngster.
“I wasn’t big enough, I wasn’t strong enough to cope with the level of rugby I was playing then,” he said.
You’ve got performance norms that you need to meet and criteria you need to meet. I was nowhere near.
“Having to cope with the pressure to stay with the group, you look for a way to try to shortcut that and you end up in hot water.
“You’re so concentrated and narrow-minded that you lose sight of the bigger picture completely.
“It becomes such a personal thing that you don’t see the people it affects.”
Del Fava added that “you have that stigma with you forever” and suggested his issues were not part of a greater collective problem.
“It wasn’t a conversation I had with anyone else. It was something I did in isolation.
“It wasn’t spoken about in the group as if it was a casual thing.”
The South African-born former Italy international claimed current players are under a “huge amount of pressure” to take performance-enhancing drugs, explaining that factors such as social media and the financial incentives for succeeding as a professional rugby star contribute to the problem.
Del Fava said that his doping past was not addressed around the time he was signing for Ulster, explaining that there were “other focuses” back then, adding that he would have been happy to talk about it if asked.
“At the time it wasn’t really a hot topic,” he explained. “There wasn’t a big controversy about it like there is now.”
Watch the full interview below.
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The League of Ireland is in a sorry state. This carry on is is not going away. As a Drogheda United we know more than most what its like when ones club chases the rainbow. How any player in the lower echelons of League of Ireland think its a good idea to be a footballer in Ireland is beyond me. All of these players will be out of contract at the end of the season, claim the dole and then go back to earning peanuts again. Its hardly a long term career plan. The FAI should use the their competition as a measure of how they as an association are performing….well its failing miserably. I’d love to see it get better, even to see it get to a Scottish standard with stadiums, facilities and televison deals would be enough but we are light years away from that.
@Patrick McHugh: so long as we keep ploughing our money into the EPL and the plastic paddy’s up north then we will never have a decent domestic league. Always love coming on here and seeing guys who proclaim to be Irish fans but will then on an EPL thread announce themselves as fans of UTD or Liverpool. The FAI don’t help though that much is true. If ever proof we’re needed then just look at the photos of Delaney or Mo’N in Inchicore poring over plans for the Richmond Bowl and on TV saying how good it will be for the game here. Oh, wait you can’t, Because they don’t exist!
@David Lawlor: Hi David, what do you mean by ‘ploughing money into the EPL and the plastic paddy up north’?
@Sean McFadden: Spending millions on trips to England and Glasgow Celtic. Non Irish teams.
@David Lawlor: Ok I get the EPL connect. The other part a reference to Hoops supporters from the North in particular?
@Sean McFadden: where does it say anything about people from the North? Very clearly talking about Celtic being north of England
fai imposes stoopid faux “licencing” bs scheeme on clubs wastes money on junkets 4 blazers & psuedo corporate fluff stuff (eg. Consultants) organization needs complete restructure & repurpose. Ireland’s soccer set up is unsustainable for long term ignoring grass roots development & proper investment in & development of local LofI &subsidiary league clubs & structures.
All our senior clubs have faced financial crises in recent times. The dundalks corks rovers etc included all hv faced financial catastrophe. FAI top brass response 2 ongoing recurring situations is 2 further distance itself from domestic scene.
Soccer is no.1 sport in ireland in terms of active players and reach, yet unlike other orgs like gaa irfu fai is appalingly run wthout proper strategic leadership or direction
When will the FAI realise that you can’t sustain a two division league system in this country and how many more teams have to go out of business for them to realize this and how do many of them get a licence year on year .Have one league with 14/ 16 teams but we all know its about money from UEFA ????????
@James Kelly: I think there’s some stipulation that you have to have at least 2 leagues to allow teams qualify for European competitions. I think
@Zossima: Nah, Gibraltar (the obvious one I could think of!) only have one division.
Love to see what that chancer Fran Gavin has to say about this.
It’s sad when this happens a club . Players have to be paid at the end of the day ! Some junior players are getting paid and they hold down jobs also , this is a stumbling block also to the clubs , why would a guy bother playing and travelling all around the country to train and play ! FAI have a lot of work to do when they get their heads out of the sand