Studies reveal West Germany ran secret organised sports doping for decades

West Germany's World Cup-winning 1954 team were injected with 'Vitamin C' which was actually speed, the report claimed.

West Germany's footballers who played in the 1966 World Cup Final against England may have been injected with drugs as part of a government-funded doping scheme, a study has suggested.

A report by German researchers claims that West Germany's athletes were systematically doped with government backing during the 1970s, and possibly as early as the 1950s.

Leaked extracts from the unpublished 800-page report titled 'Doping in Germany from 1950 to today' were published by German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung on Saturday.

According to the report, one unnamed interior minister said at the time: 'Our athletes should have the same conditions and services as the Eastern Bloc athletes.'

Researchers said West German doping did not evolve as a response to East Germany's systematic doping under the Communist government, but operated parallel to it.

The report claimed that for many years the state financed experiments with performance-enhancing substances such as anabolic steroids, testosterone, oestrogen or the blood-doping agent EPO. It did not say when the experiments ended.

It stated that an unspecified number of footballers in the 1954 World Cup-winning team received 'Vitamin C' injections, which were actually the methamphetamine Pervitin - commonly known as speed.

Amphetamines were used by German soldiers during World War II and their continued use in German football from the end of the 1940s became 'normal', according to the study.  (more...)

Studies reveal West Germany ran secret organised sports doping for decades