Rafael Nadal tells a Spanish radio station that he believes there is a "general campaign" in France to discredit Spanish athletes by implying their success is due to doping.
Nadal’s statements came in the wake of French TV station Canal Plus’ show "The Puppeteers" that put together an animated skit of Nadal where it appears he is drinking something that gives him an amazing amount of energy. The Spanish Tennis Federation is threatening sue the station for use of its logo in the broadcast.
The Spanish tennis community responded strongly to an opinion piece last fall written by France’s Yannick Noah, where he alleged that Spanish athletes might be doping.
"It's the kind of humor that for one day is fine, but if it is repeated over and over again it's not right and I think it oversteps the line a bit," six-time Roland Garros champion Nadal said. "I don't think it's just one media, it's a general campaign by the neighboring country. It's sad to see a campaign like that against something that has cost so much to achieve. There's no question of pills or syringes or anything like that I can assure you."
However, on Friday, ITF president Francesco Ricci Bitti told DPA that had Spain released all the information from Operation Puerto, the large-scale Spanish anti-doping investigation that came up with few concrete results, other countries views of its athletes might be different.
"I think that Spain should have a found the way to disclose all the Operation Puerto. Right now it wouldn't be this perception, this feeling," Ricci Bitti said. "It was not a mistake, (but) this was not good for sport in Spain, the fact that they weren't able to disclose all the aspects of the Operation Puerto," said Ricci Bitti, who is also member of the executive committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).