Mariano verrina
11/20/2020 6:00 AM
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 11/20/2020 6:00 AM
On Friday, August 2, 2019, while Santiago Silva was concentrated next to the Argentinos Juniors squad in Mar del Plata waiting for the match against Aldosivi, a telegram arrived at his home.
Vanesa, his wife, received him.
She opened the envelope and was the first to know the news.
“When he told me I couldn't believe it.
The world fell apart.
The first thing that crossed my mind was the treatment, ”says the Uruguayan who will turn 40 on December 9 and was sanctioned with two suspension after being detected in an anti-doping control that he had higher levels of testosterone than allowed.
The tape began to rewind in his head.
In January 2019, she had started a treatment to regulate her hormonal levels and facilitate the process of finding a new child.
On April 12, after the game he played for Gymnastics against Newell's, he submitted to the anti-doping control that four months later and through the telegram that his wife received, he returned the unexpected result.
- Did the doctors know that you were doing the fertility treatment?
-I had discussed everything with my doctor, everything was fine, there was no problem.
My mistake, and I admit it, is not having informed the Gymnastics doctor.
But I didn't trust him, we didn't have a relationship.
In a control, the hormone, testosterone, came out a bit higher and that caused doping.
When the time came for the hearing with the authorities of the National Anti-Doping Commission, Silva and his lawyers assisted with the papers that gave an account of the treatment that the forward was undergoing to try to have a child again and the medication that this implied.
"We were very satisfied with the meeting," the forward recalls.
He had nothing to hide.
It was all on the table, it was perfectly understood what the treatment was and why he was doing it.
There are the papers showing that my testosterone levels were low and that I needed to level them.
But time passed, there was no firm sentence and I was still suspended, they wouldn't let me play.
That is why I turn to Justice.
And he gives me the okey, he gives me the caution ”.
It was the Federal Contentious Administrative Court number 3 that determined on August 28, 2019 that the suspension was suspended and that Silva could resume his work until the case was resolved.
In the arguments that supported the footballer's request, the Court noted that in the case there was “the concurrence of serious and objectively urgent circumstances that justify the issuance of the planned interim measure”.
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A post shared by Santiago Silva (@ tanksilva09)
“The feeling I have is that they didn't like that I went to court and that's why they give me two years.
The big problem is that, I have no doubts.
Soccer doesn't like that.
We are used to everyone entering through one door and leaving through the other ”, emphasizes the
Tank
.
And he continues: “I see cases, I look for, I analyze, and the doping that took place both in Argentine football and abroad did not have this type of sanction.
There are cases in which the consumption of social drugs was detected and they are given six months, nine months.
Without going any further, an emblematic one like that of Paolo Guerrero: they found traces of cocaine, they suspended him, a precautionary measure entered, they let him play and then they gave him six months ”.
When Justice gave effect to his request, the Uruguayan returned to the courts in September 2019. Only a year later, pandemic through, when he was again concentrated about to debut with Argentinos against San Lorenzo for the League Cup Professional, he heard about his case again.
The Official Gazette of the AFA of October 30, 2020 informed with the signature of Federal Judge
Santiago Carrillo
that the precautionary measure was exhausted and that from that date the previously imposed sanction of two years of suspension began to take effect.
“It is another point of irregularities.
They waited so long to ratify the suspension and they let me know one day before playing.
I was not even notified before the pandemic started and at least I had that time to move.
Neither those months in which I continued training are part of the suspension.
The two years count from now on ”, the forward goes over.
-In the middle of the sports sanction, the human side was left. Did you decide to continue the treatment or did you interrupt it?
-No, I cut it instantly.
It was a very hard blow because I am at the end of my career and I never expected such a situation.
-Do you regret having gone to ordinary Justice?
-Not at all.
This goes hand in hand with many things that happen in our football, mismanagement.
A pandemic is coming, a lot of things are eliminated, there are free players, the level of competition is lowered ... And I can assure that the hand is coming out there.
How am I going to regret it if there was no final sentence and nobody told me "Silva, you are suspended for six months, eight", whatever it was.
What's more, Justice agreed with me.
The resolution in the AFA Bulletin that establishes compliance with the sanction of two years of suspension to Santiago Silva for doping.
-I understand that you accept a sanction but that the two years seem excessive.
-I am not denying the treatment, I am not hiding anything.
I am admitting: my mistake was not having notified the club doctor.
But beware, there are a lot of irregularities that are detailed in the file.
As in all doping cases, the urine traveled to Madrid for the counter-test and several failures were detected in this process, in the transfer, in how the sample should be preserved, in terms of temperature.
Everything is detailed in the file: there are papers, there is an audio, everything is.
I didn't even know about all these things, I had to inform myself now, imagine that in 22 years of career I did thousands of anti-doping tests and I never had a problem.
I never had a lawyer in my life and now I have two, it's all very crazy.
We appeal for all these actions that were not as they should be and now they want to wash their hands and send the matter to TAS.
Meanwhile I can't play.
- Lack of union between footballers to jointly discuss certain problems that are more social than sports?
-It is a big problem that we players have.
And I'm not saying it because of what happens to me now.
We captains spoke it when the pandemic started.
There was never an agreement.
We agreed that we were going to take care of the players who were released and it was something fictitious.
I understand the moment, but here the descents ended and something else.
We as players are the real actors in the movie and we couldn't do anything.
First, I think there is a lack of a union of positive leaders, then there was no support from the union members, which is the one that should take care of us, and finally everything became very political.
We know it, we see it every day, but few of us say it.
Today you cannot talk much because there is fear of being punished.
-Did you raise your problem in Unionized?
-I raised it at first when doping jumped on me.
But I saw so many negative things ... When you see that they tell you "no, not over here, be careful with this, with that", I only thought of making myself strong.
The people I spoke to had no idea what he was saying.
So I decided to go to court: no worker, be he a footballer or whatever, can be prohibited from working when there is no final judgment.
-Did they recommend hiding the matter, not showing your arguments?
-But very clear.
I come here and tell you “my mistake was this, I did not tell the treatment doctor, but I want to have a child.
Is it clear?
Perfect".
I assume my responsibility, I have been in football for 22 years, my conduct is impeccable, I am showing you the papers that show what I am doing.
And I'm not asking you to tell me "well, Silva, perfect, I congratulate you, I kept looking for the son and kept playing."
No, I know, there was a mistake.
I took a medicine to have a child, perfect, but that you measure with that rod and give me two years of suspension when there are thousands of cases that did not have a sanction like this ... By God!
I'm going to continue fighting her in every way.
And not to fight to fight, but because the issue is not clear.
Santiago Silva, just to his partner, Vanesa and their children Esmeralda (7), Uliana (13) and Lihuel (18).
Photo: Instagram
-How was it having to explain to your children that you keep going to train every day but that you can't play?
-And, it was very hard, I'm not going to lie to you.
I have three children.
The oldest is Lihuel, who is my son of the heart
(sic)
, he is 18, then Uliana, 13 and Esmeralda, who is 7. And it's hard.
More now with social networks, they upload everything, they observe absolutely everything.
They see me every day, they know who I am and what I am like.
You have to show your mettle to get ahead.
I explained to them and they understood.
It was difficult, not only explaining to my children but also the situation with my wife.
You are looking for a son and they hit you with a hammer, they take you away: "Here, crazy, two years for you."
There is an obvious question: about to turn 40, the man who played in 23 teams and in 9 leagues, who scored more than 200 goals, who shouted champion with Banfield, Vélez, Boca and Lanús and who is the Uruguayan with the most goals in Argentine football knows that there is no place to pay for a two-year sanction and then return to the fields.
"Imagine if this happens to a 20-year-old boy who is just starting out," emphasizes the
Tank
.
I would have had to enter one door and exit the other.
Or he would not have had the financial resources to do the retest, to get a lawyer.
What I see is that it was an experienced person, quite mature in every sense.
And what happened?
You went to Justice, there you go, I'll take you back ”.
- Do you feel that, that they want to withdraw you?
-It is that if you give me two years and I turn 40 on December 9, you wanted to retire me, you threw me aside.
And go-go.
This is the system.
For there my profile does not go within the system.
Today everything is in sight: Argentine football is in decline.
And let's not use the pandemic as an excuse, huh.
Already before we cannot have fans because there is violence, the championships are done completely the other way around, the leaders go to vote and come out tied… A lot of things.
You do not see a reference of Argentine football.
There are businessmen, there are leaders, but another look is missing.
And here footballers must assume our responsibility: the soccer player does not prepare.
Or when it prepares it is late.
And that encourages decline.
When we begin to understand the players that we can be the actors and those who produce the film, it will be different.
-What kind of footballers does the system want?
-The less the player is involved and the less he knows and the less he prepares, the better.
Because you handle it.
-And in the middle of this mess you didn't think about hanging up your boots and leaving everything?
-No, on the contrary.
It hit me backwards, the pandemic, this unfair sanction ... It drives me crazy to duplicate efforts, I love it.
Someone who sees me says: "This is a jerk, they gave him two years, that he go home."
But no.
There is no other way out.
It's like in any aspect of life: either you start crying or you fight it.
-What happened to you when you found out that now there are no anti-doping controls in all matches?
-I laughed.
What I am going to do?
I am amused, it is very funny, it will be due to an economic issue due to the pandemic.
They say they are going to go to the clubs without warning, so by luck and truth ... Something happened there, what do I know.
-There are footballers with open causes for gender violence who continue to play. Although they are not similar situations, what generates you?
-If it's real.
And when I see it I am branded.
There are many situations that are stronger than mine and that are not taken with the same rod.
It is what we have to live.
But I do not want to blur, I will try to reverse it in Justice.
-What do your lawyers tell you?
-They are optimistic, like me.
We are going for the annulment of the case because there are a lot of irregularities within the procedure.
What's more, there are many things that I cannot count.
But it's all on the table, that's what leaves me alone.
I am a victim of the situation, there is no evil here, there is no intention of taking physical or sporting advantage.
FK