Dear friends and colleagues,

Sadly, Phillip Opiyo has been dropped by Bush Bucks after failing a doping test last month in South Africa (see the press reports below).

Phillip started playing in MYSA as a 10-year old in 1989. From 1990-95 he played for Lucky Strikers FC in the MYSA Mathare Zone and featured on the MYSA U16 team in the 1995 Norway Cup. He joined Mathare United in 1998 and was a key defender that year when our club became the first team from outside the Premier League to win the Moi Golden Cup. He then helped our club win the 1999 Hedex Millennium Cup and the 2000 Moi Golden Cup.
 
In February 2003 Phillip transferred to Tusker FC on a free transfer. Our release letter (copy attached)  stated: "We highly recommend Phillip as a talented, mature, committed and disciplined player. Phillip is also highly respected for his exceptional fairplay in his five years with our team…. Phillip will be an asset on any team and his many good friends on our team look forward to meeting him again on the playing field". In an interview in May 2003 Phillip said: "I had no problem with Mathare from the time I first joined them until I left. I have great respect for Mathare United chairman Bob Munro and his colleagues in the club's executive. It is only their rules that I have taken exception to". The reporter, Hezekiah Wepukhulu, wrote: "Although he has left Mathare, there have been no hard feelings. Club chairman Bob Munro said: "Philip is a highly disciplined, talented and intelligent player. He was always an inspiration to the team and we feel sorry to lose him." (NATION, Saturday, May 31, 2003).

With the honesty that his friends in MYSA and Mathare United all appreciated and admired, Phillip admitted taking cannabis at his disciplinary hearing. As Bush Bucks then dropped him, Phillip has now paid a high price for a serious mistake which he honestly admits and clearly regrets. I and his many other friends here are confident that when he is allowed to resume playing, Phillip will again become a role model on and off the field and will help his fellow players here and in South Africa to avoid making the same mistake by sharing his sad experience with them.

With best wishes,
Bob
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Bucks player sacked over dagga
Dispatch Online, South Africa, Friday, February 11, 2005
By Mesuli Zifo
 
EAST LONDON - Bush Bucks management wasted little time in dealing with the doping scandal involving Phillip Wire Opiyo when they terminated the services of the Kenyan defender. Opiyo failed a doping test conducted by the SA Institute for Drug Free Sports after Bucks' league clash against Silver Stars at Absa Stadium here on January 19. The player was notified of the tests by correspondence from SA Football Association (SAFA) CEO Danny Jordan who also offered the defender an opportunity to go for a B sample test. However, at a disciplinary hearing called by Bucks this week, Opiyo pleaded guilty of ingesting a banned substance - cannabis (dagga) - and declined to make himself available for a B sample test.

Bucks spokesperson Leister Piti said Bucks had invoked clause 11 of the two-year contract signed with the player to terminate it. While Opiyo was a welcome addition to Bucks' shaky defence, Piti said the reputation of the club came first, hence the sacking of the player. "Although we are hard pressed for filling gaps in our defence our moral obligation comes first," Piti said. "There are many youngsters who idolise these players and the club in general so we need to maintain our moral standard to our supporters and financial partners. Unfortunately Opiyo's situation defeats the very same objective."
 
Opiyo, 26, joined Bucks from Free State Stars and received rave reviews in his first games at Bucks. But his performance deteriorated to inconsistence although he was one of the star players in Bucks' controversial 2-1 defeat by Orlando Pirates last month.
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Rise in soccer drug busts
Mail & Guardian Online, Friday, February 11, 2005
Ntuthuko Maphumulo

There has been an increase in the number of Premier Soccer League (PSL) players who have been caught using cannabinoids (dagga), a prohibited substance. Two more players in the league will face the South African Football Association (SAFA) disciplinary committee for using this banned substance. Neither SAFA nor the PSL would release names until the players accepted the finding or insisted on B samples being tested.
 
Many players use dagga for recreational purposes, but since football’s world governing body, FIFA, signed world anti-doping protocols just before last year’s Olympic Games, national organisations have been told to clamp down on the use of any prohibited substance. The South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport only started conducting doping tests in South African football in the 2000/01 season. Since then only 12 PSL players have failed the tests. Of the 12, six tested positive for dagga. In the 2001/02 season, former Manning Rangers player Jerome McCarthy was the first local player to test positive when he was found to have traces of a form of ephedrine in his system.
 
The then chairperson of the SAFA disciplinary committee, Zola Majavu, sentenced the player to do community service and suspended him for 12 months. McCarthy’s failure to comply with his sentence resulted in him being banned worldwide by FIFA. The following season, 2002/03, four out of 133 tests gave positive results. Of these, three were for dagga use and one for fencamfamine, the drug McCarthy used. Last season, of 193 tests conducted, three were positive — one each for dagga, salbutamol and methyl-testosterone. This season so far, out of 130 tests four have been positive, one for the anabolic steroid salbutamol and three for dagga.
 
PSL chief operations officer Sizwe Nzimande told the Mail & Guardian that the reason more players are caught is that the anti-doping commission tests players more often than it did before. Nzimande said the league does not know when the commission tests will be taken.  
The two players who have recently been caught could face a six-month ban from soccer and a fine, but this will depend on the SAFA disciplinary committee.
 
FIFA sanctions depend on the element of danger and on the quantity detected of the substance in question and whether the infringement has been repeated, but they stipulate a ban of at least six months from all matches at every level and a minimum fine of 10 000 Swiss francs (about R2 000) for a first-time infringement. Wholly suspended sentences are not recommended by FIFA.
PSL’s hall of shame

Phillip Opiyo Wire (Bush Bucks): Traces of marijuana. Still to appear before a disciplinary committee and has refused to have his B sample tested.

Moneeb Josephs (Ajax Cape Town): Salbutamol, used to treat asthma — classified as either a stimulant or a performance-enhancer depending on concentration levels. Fined R12 000 and received a suspended six-month ban.

Harry Milanzi (Golden Arrows): Marijuana. Fined R15 400 and given suspended six-month ban.

Arthur Zwane (Kaizer Chiefs): Methyl-testosterone (an anabolic agent that is a performance
enhancer). Initial two-year ban reduced to six months.

Josam Ndou (Dynamos): Salbutamol. Banned for nine months.

Jerome McCarthy (Manning Rangers): Fencamfamine, a stimulant. Banned for 12 months, fined and ordered to do community service — which he failed to do, and as a result had his ban extended worldwide.

Manqoba “Shakes” Ngwenya (Wits, now Sundowns): Marijuana. Undiclosed fine and community service.

Arthur Baartman (Bush Bucks): Marijuana. Fined.

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